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PRESENTER: Richard P. Brown, MD, clinical psychiatrist; lead author:

-- The Rhodiola Revolution: Transform Your Health With
the Herbal Breakthrough of the 21st Century (Rodale, 2004);

-- Stop Depression Now: SAM-e, the Breakthrough
Supplement That Works As Well As Prescription Drugs
in Half the Time ... With No Side Effects (Putnam, 1999)

TOPIC: Over-the-Counter ADD Remedies:
Research and Experience

In the effort to relieve ADD -- or symptoms which at times surround it -- any number of legal substances have been tried. Only a few are prescription drugs.

The rest are an assortment of vitamins, minerals, herbs, and building blocks of proteins or fats -- often packaged together. Many of these, it is claimed, increase mental energy or concentration and improve memory or mood.* Meanwhile, a few -- zinc, magnesium, carnitine, vitamin B-6, omega-3 fatty acids -- have been tested in ADD; with mixed results.

On June 2, we were joined by psychiatrist Richard Brown. Dr. Brown -- the lead author of books on the amino acid SAM-e and the cold-climate root Rhodiola rosea** -- He discussed mental-health-related uses of these two preparations; and fielded questions about others. In addition, he described the use of breathing techniques -- derived from Sudarshan Kriya Yoga -- to reduce stress, depression, anxiety, and anger.

Dr. Brown graduated from Columbia's medical school in 1977, and trained further at New York Hospital. He has taught at Columbia and lectured widely on psychiatric uses of botannicals and other nutrients; and on yoga-based approaches to these same issues. The latter -- a more recent interest -- has taken him to India and Taiwan where he has both studied and presented.

Dr. Brown maintains a private practice in both Manhattan and upstate New York. This will be his second appearance before the Support Group.

* Evaluations of several of these have been posted at
www.maaddsg.org/Supplements_t_o_c.htm.

** For an excerpt, see www.familyresource.com/lifestyles/22/876. For a discussion of its use in ADD see pages 98-100.

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