By Anne H. Bower Diana R. Cundell

Developed nations have always reported that a large percentage of the population suffer from mood imbalance and associated insomnia, which may be sporadic or chronic. Recent data has suggested that the isolation and anxiety created by the COVID-19 pandemic and its continued persistence have worsened conditions for existing sufferers and created millions of new patients. Indeed, this upward trend is now of extreme global concern with depression and anxiety tripling to nearly 80 million cases. Numbers of patients attempting suicide are also at an all-time high with a 50% increase in cases, especially amongst teenagers. Pharmaceutical interventions offer hope for many, but they come with a new cost of dependence and side effects, which may leave an anxious patient in a daytime fog or with permanent movement issues (tardive dyskinesia). For the teenage or elderly patient, therapies for anxiety or depression may even increase the likelihood of self-harm. For some patients this has meant the avoidance of classic allopathic medicines and a growing interest in alternative plant-based therapies. As the numbers of patients needing support rises, it therefore behooves us to identify both where pharmaceuticals fail these individuals and where phytomedicines have successfully filled in the gaps.