herb · for anxiety
Valerian
Acts on your brain’s calming system and damps down an over-active stress response.
Say that in clinical terms
Provides GABAergic anxiolysis and reduces HPA axis hyperactivity, dampening stress response.
How strong is the research?
Evidence evidence
Only one studyStudied in a narrower groupA different form was studiedLow-quality evidence
2 papers read, 1 supporting.
Who was studied: 24 healthy volunteers put under stress in a laboratory, not people with an anxiety disorder.
How much to take
daily
300–600 mg
Anxiolytic effects are milder than sedative effects. Avoid with alcohol.
Before you take it
- CNS depressant potentiation: additive sedation with benzodiazepines, barbiturates, opioids, antihistamines, and alcohol; NIH ODS specifically notes additive effect with kava and melatonin.
- Avoid during pregnancy and lactation — safety not established in either population.
- Not established safe in children under 3 years — insufficient data.
- Potential in vitro inhibition of CYP3A4; clinical significance at typical oral doses in humans is unconfirmed but cannot be excluded for drugs with narrow therapeutic windows.
- Abrupt discontinuation after prolonged daily use: rare case reports of withdrawal-like symptoms (tachycardia, agitation, rebound insomnia); evidence is limited to isolated case reports.
- Rare case reports of hepatotoxicity involving multi-herb combination products containing valerian; causal attribution to valerian alone has not been established in any report.
- Morning grogginess reported in at least one clinical study at the 900 mg dose.
- No NIH ODS Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) established — valerian is an herbal supplement, not a micronutrient; the UL framework does not apply.
- Dose-dependent paradoxical anxiogenic effect observed at 1800 mg in the only supporting RCT; the anxiolytic dose (600 mg) and the anxiogenic dose (1800 mg) were tested in the same study
What we make of it
A combination product, and single doses at that.
The detail
The study tested a fixed combination containing valerian alongside another herb, at three single doses. It cannot tell you what valerian alone does over time.