Chasteberry: The Unsung Hero That Cures My Depression and Helps With My ADHD
My experience with ADHD medication and how chasteberry changed my life
Dear readers,
This is a post I published on Medium a few weeks ago and now I am also posting it here for free. Spread the word about chasteberry!
IMPORTANT: Chasteberry can interact with other drugs, including birth control and mental health medication, so do consult your doctor before you decide to take it.
Disclaimer: This post is not meant to invalidate the use of stimulants as ADHD medication. I am just reporting on my experience!
As a scientist, I had always had my reservations about herbal medicine, but taking chasteberry and researching about the clinical studies that confirm its efficacy left me speechless. Medicine is medicine, regardless of its origin. Needless to say, chasteberry has close to no side effects and that makes it an extremely attractive option compared to alternatives. Heck, I don’t think there is an alternative that can do all this!
My experience with ADHD stimulants
“Yes, it has been confirmed. You have ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). Here is the prescription for your medication, you should be covered for the next 6 months,” said the psychiatrist after glancing at my 2-page survey in which I ticked statements like “I often feel distracted/can’t sit still/can’t pay attention”.
“Medication, ok,” said me who had never taken any mental health medication and was suddenly feeling a bit uneasy about the prospect of becoming medicated. “What about therapy?” I blurted out.
“Therapy? Let’s see first if the pills work. If they do, no need to go to therapy, am I right?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I said confused, but also kind of relieved. My last experience with therapy was not that great.
I was replaying this conversation in my head as I exited the pharmacy with a stash of pills that could last me an eternity.
Despite my unease around medication, I decided to listen to the doctor. He might be right, maybe solving my ADHD problems is as easy as taking a pill. In fact, I really hope it is.
The next day, I was working from home and I deemed this to be the perfect opportunity to take my first Elvanse (aka Vyvanse) pill of 32 mg (the lowest dose for adults), a stimulant that increases dopamine levels in the brain.
The effect was immediate, I felt energized but also calm? I felt so calm in fact that I decided to work from my bed. As soon as I started working, I noticed I was deeply focused on what I was reading, but at the same time I couldn’t quite focus on the meaning of what I was reading. I felt a bit high.
At some point in the afternoon, the effect wore off and I felt like myself again. This experience was a bit crazier than I expected, but I was still willing to give the pills a second chance. It was obvious to me that the dose I was given was way too high.
The next morning, I decided to open a capsule and put only half of it in a cup. I then mixed in some milk and took half of my dose. The method of opening the capsule is actually mentioned in the Elvanse leaflet so I felt confident in doing this. I later saw other ADHDers talk online about how they do the same thing to lower their doses because 32 mg is the lowest prescribed dose for Elvanse!
Fast forward one year and this was my habit with Elvanse. I took it whenever I needed to work from my office (still half the dose), while on work-from-home days and on weekends I didn’t take it. I felt like Elvanse truly helped me with only one of the life tasks I struggled with: Getting ready for work and leaving the house (I don’t know why that is so hard for me!). All of my other struggles, like depression, were still there, but we’ll get there.
What stimulants did for me was to energize me enough to get out in the world, but not much else. What’s worse, I didn’t feel completely like myself when I was on them.
The most debilitating aspect of my ADHD and the reason why I sought treatment in the first place is my mild to moderate depression. I say mild to moderate because I don’t meet the criteria for the major depressive disorder and because my depressive episodes are typically fueled by some ADHD-related trigger (like I just can’t make myself finish this task!), followed by a disproportional emotional response to it. As soon as the trigger is gone, I am completely fine.
I was placing my hope in the stimulants because I really thought that if the ADHD symptoms were managed, my depression would be gone. But it wasn’t.
Depressive episodes were as common as ever and they would get that much worse every month around PMS (premenstrual syndrome), working hard to get me into the realm of the major depressive disorder.
How chasteberry changed my life
I went on, taking stimulants here and there, still generally unsatisfied with how I was “treating” my mental health symptoms until one day I had a life-changing conversation with a friend.
I told her about my frustration and how I get completely mentally unstable around PMS. She told me she had the same thing until her gynecologist recommended the chasteberry pills.
“You can get them over the counter in any drugstore,” she said while handing over a small bottle with brown capsules.
“How is it possible I have never heard of this?” I asked myself. I’ve been to the gynecologist so many times, but all I was offered was the contraceptive pill, which I decided to discontinue many years ago.
Chasteberry (Vitex agnus-castus) is promoted as a dietary supplement for symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, breast pain associated with the menstrual cycle, infertility, and other conditions. (https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/chasteberry)
I bought the chasteberry pills, read the leaflet (don’t forget to do it, if you decide to take it!), and started taking it. I researched a bit about it and found that chasteberry has been proven effective against PMS symptoms in clinical trials (Roemheld-Hamm, 2005, Golmakani & Zagami, 2011). And it’s sold as a supplement, how crazy is that!
When my first PMS period came and went, I noticed there was no depressive episode this time. “Could’ve been a fluke, let’s see the next one.” Not only that there was no depressive episode in the next PMS period, there were no depressive episodes ever again!
After 6 months of taking chasteberry, I hadn’t had a single depressive episode! My ADHD triggers did not lead to a downward spiral of depression anymore. My emotions were managed.
Recently it dawned on me that chasteberry not only treats my depression but it also helps with my ADHD! But how is that possible? Isn’t this plant meant to treat only PMS symptoms?
I googled a bit around and to my surprise, I found that chasteberry can have dopaminergic effects (Roemheld-Hamm, 2005,). In other words, it has an effect on dopamine levels in your brain! What does this remind us of? Stimulants, of course, which increase dopamine levels in order to treat ADHD. This is why it is not advisable to take stimulants at the same time as chasteberry:
No herb-drug interactions have been reported, but caution is advised for its concomitant use with dopamine agonists or antagonists. (Roemheld-Hamm, 2005)
I have not found yet any research explicitly linking chasteberry to ADHD treatment, so take this advice with a grain of salt. But I can assure you that my individual experience speaks in its favor. At the very least, chasteberry should always be considered as a line of treatment in women with mild to moderate depression, especially if the symptoms get worse around PMS, and especially if there are indications of PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder).
As a scientist, I had always had my reservations about herbal medicine, but taking chasteberry and researching about the clinical studies that confirm its efficacy left me speechless. Medicine is medicine, regardless of its origin. Needless to say, chasteberry has close to no side effects* and that makes it an extremely attractive option compared to alternatives. Heck, I don’t think there is an alternative that can do all this!
*The only side effect I experienced is slightly lower libido and the fact that chasteberry can interact with other medicines can be potentially limiting for many people.
I invite all the scientists in the field of medicine to start researching the possible effects of chasteberry on ADHD symptoms! We need more research on herbal medicine, especially in the realm of mental health!
Let’s spread the word and help all emotionally dysregulated people!
What are your experiences with mental health medication? Let me know in the comments!
A sequel to this post is going to be about another unsung hero of mental health: St John’s Wort or Hypericum perforatum. Stay tuned!
Sources:
Golmakani, Nahid, and Samira Ebrahimzadeh Zagami. “Use of medicinal plants in the treatment of premenstrual syndrome: A review.” J. Am. Sci 7 (2011): 60–64.
Roemheld-Hamm, Beatrix. “Chasteberry.” American Family Physician 72.5 (2005): 821–824.
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Until next time,
Ana
Hey Ana, glad that you found Vitex (Chasteberry) for yourself to be beneficial.
Professionally, I'm a functional medicine provider and have seen Vitex angus-castus work well for many women.
Interestingly, traditionally, it was used by monks and other cloistered religious to decrease libido. This is definitely not an herb that is generally used by men for that reason.
In modern times, it has mainly been used for women's health issues including hot flashes, PMS, amenorrhea, and infertility. According to one of my books, "Clinical Guide to Nutrition & Dietary Supplements in Disease Management," "Chasteberry acts on the anterior pituitary to normalize menstruation and encourage ovulation. It reduces prolactin production and increases progesterone production by reducing secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone and increasing production of luteinizing hormone. Its active principle appears to bind to dopamine receptors in the pituitary" (p.483). It further states, "Irritability, bloating, and depression are most likely to be relieved in women who produce insufficient progesterone in the 2 weeks before menstruation. Mastodynia is less severe after therapy. Less prolactin production may reduce premenstrual breast tenderness" (p.484).
ADDitude has an interesting article on the link between PMS and worsening of ADHD symptoms: "PMS and ADHD: How the Menstrual Cycle Intensifies Symptoms" https://www.additudemag.com/pms-adhd-hormones-menstrual-cycle/ and there's also an interesting study published: "Female-specific pharmacotherapy in ADHD: premenstrual adjustment of psychostimulant dosage" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10751335/ . Finally, according to WebMD: "The female sex hormone estrogen also increases the amount of dopamine in your brain. Another female hormone, progesterone, acts on dopamine as well, but research doesn’t fully understand yet just what effect it has. Estrogen levels rise in the first 2 weeks of the menstrual cycle. After ovulation, estrogen levels drop and progesterone levels rise. Both hormones are at their lowest levels in the days right before your period. That may also cause a drop in dopamine. For some women, that can mean a double whammy of worsening ADHD symptoms and PMS." https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/adult-adhd-menstrual-cycle
This definitely helps to point to how and why Chasteberry would be helpful for most women experiencing PMS and especially ADHD women.
My personal recommendation is for anyone who wants to consider using medicinal herbs to work with a clinical medical herbalist, functional medicine provider, or acupuncturist who also uses herbs. In most cases (for nearly all conditions), it's best to have a holistic approach rather than only using a single herb. Just my professional opinion.
Thank you for making me aware of an option I’d never heard of!