Is St. John's Wort Safe with Sertraline?
Free · No account · based on published sources including NIH ODS, FDA drug labels, and peer-reviewed literature
Do not combine. Stop St. John's Wort immediately and contact your doctor. Seek emergency care if you experience agitation, rapid heart rate, high fever, or muscle twitching.
Why this interaction occurs
St. John's Wort inhibits serotonin reuptake via hypericin and hyperforin. Combined with SSRIs like sertraline, this causes additive serotonergic activity, significantly increasing the risk of life-threatening serotonin syndrome.
Evidence
Evidence level: strong.
Reported safety data
The FDA’s adverse event reporting system (FAERS) has received 145,428 reports mentioning Sertraline. This reflects reported cases involving the medication in general — not confirmed causation, and not specific to the Sertraline + supplement combination on this page.
FAERS reports are voluntary and cannot prove that a drug caused an event. Do not use report counts to assess the safety of this specific drug-supplement pair.
Frequently asked questions
Related interactions
All St. John's Wort interactions → · All Sertraline interactions →
Already checked this one — check your whole list
Educational only — not medical advice.
Always confirm with your doctor or pharmacist.