Valerian/Lemon Balm Combo Helps Kids with ADHD Symptooms

Valerian and lemon balm are two great calming herbs. New research suggests that they may help kids who, though they don’t have ADHD, have some of the symptoms of ADHD. . . .

This study gave valerian and lemon balm to children between the ages of six and eleven who have symptoms of ADHD–hyperactivity and concentration difficulties–but who do not meet the diagnostic criteria for ADHD. The dose was 640mg of valerian extract and 320mg of lemon balm extract each day for seven weeks.

At the end of the study, the children were evaluated both by their parents and by physicians. According to the doctors’ ratings, the valerian/lemon balm combo brought about significant improvement in concentration, hyperactivity, impulsiveness, social behaviour and sleep.

According to the parents’ ratings, symptom severity went down from 3.2 to 2.7. Parents rated problems in leisure time, problems with friends, difficulties in everyday life, burden on children, burden on parents and family and problems in school all as significantly improved. Importantly, parents who felt their child’s behaviour was a heavy or very heavy burden dropped from 58% at the beginning of the study to only 18% after treatment with valerian and lemon balm.

Treatment satisfaction was rated as good or very good by 62% of physicians nad 58% of parents.

The researchers concluded that the valerian/lemon balm combination is a safe and effective treatment. The study is very exciting because of the improvement seen by both parents and teachers, but, because it was not a controlled study, it will be interesting to see what future research will show.

Phytomed 2014;21:1098-1103