Q. My friend (a doctor) has been taking St. John’s wort. She recently bought a different brand while she was out of town and continued taking one in the morning and one at night.
I called her to confirm a meeting and found she was having a problem with short-term memory and was acting spacey. She asked me many times what day it was.
I thought she might be having a stroke, but an MRI showed nothing unusual.
She checked the St. John’s wort bottle and found it said to take only one per day. Once she dropped the supplement, she began to recover. Have other people reported confusion with St. John’s wort?
A. Confusion is a rare side effect of St. John’s wort, but it has been reported. Since your friend was taking twice the recommended dose, she was probably getting an overdose.
