the 5htp realy appealed to me as it seems to be good for sleep and pain as well as for mood

I am bipolar and struggle mainly with the depression side. With my RX meds of Seroquel and Vibryd and Valium I take many other supplements. I take SamE 400mg(for depression) and L theanine 100mg prn (kind of an anxiety med). I am lucky to have a dr that believes in supplemental medicine and alternative-holistic medicine as well as modern pharmaceutical remedies. Good luck.

I take 5-HTP and have for a few years now. I take 100mg in the morning and 200mg in the evening, always with food. I did not have any problem when I introduced it into my supplement regime, I did so slowly, with 100mg daily and building up to the 300mg over a period of 6 weeks. I've always taken a very gradual approach when introducing something new, and only one thing at a time to rule out side effects.

My alternative medicine nurse practitioner tried to put my on St. John's wort. Even though when she "muscle tested" me it showed it would be helpful, it made my moods worse. Sam-E was recommended and I tried it years ago with no positive or negative results. No nothing about 5htp. That's my 2 cents worth.

Hi Luna. Some people have good results from Gaba. Might be worth researching. Also, both 5-HTP and L-Theanine come in spray form (spray under your tongue). I believe Neuroscience is the brand my Dr recommends.

I have had horrible luck with anti-depressants, so I turned to these three alternatives. I didn't notice a thing with St. Johns Wort. I did have success with the Sam-E and 5htp. I take Sam-E everyday for depression. It doesn't get rid of it completely, but it seems to keep it at bay. I only take the 5htp when I start to have anxiety, or to curb my appetite if I'm in a deep depression.

Good luck!

Wanted to bump this up. I've been trying a timed release 5 htp in small amounts, tiny actually, I am taking 25mg trelease twice a day after starting with once in the morning, felt I needed some to keep me steady at night. More than that gives me an awful headache and makes me shaky. I was liking how I felt on the 10mg low dose regular one but having to take it every 4 hrs due to the short half life was not working for me. Side effects for me so far, mild headache and a bit of exacerbation of my hypoglycemia, having to eat a few more complex carbs. Also, I have always remembered my dreams a lot of the time but now they are really vivid, I knew I dream in color but wow now it's really there and I can remember my dreams when I wake up and actually change them if they are upsetting me when I'm asleep. I believe this is called lucid dreaming. It's fascinating.
This stuff is really helping my pain level and I seem to have really cut down on the what if kind of thinking. The one I'm taking is Natrol 100mg TR, and I'm cutting it into 4 pieces. Normally, any TR should not be cut as it interferes with the way the time release works (this from my days as a pharm tech), but after reading many reviews of others who do it with no ill side effects I gave it a try and I'm not noting any particular peaks and drops so it seems ok. If they made it in lower doses I'd buy it that way but i100 is the lowest avail. Anyway, if you are like me and have always felt your serotonin was a bit off but all the rx meds are just way too much, this might be helpful.