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What are Kava's other names?

• Ava Pepper
• Awa
• Intoxicating Pepper
• Kava Kava
• Kava Pepper
• Piper methysticum
• Rauschpfeffer
• Sakau
• Tonga
• Wurzelstock
• Yangona

What is Kava's recommended dosage?

• Recommended daily intake: 300 mg
• Recommended daily doses: 3

What supplements interact with Kava?

What can Kava help with?

Kava for Anxiety

8 studies Moderately Positive Although the results show consistent advantages for WS 1490 over placebo in several psychiatric scales and indicate significant improvements in the patients' general well-being, the differences versus placebo were not as large as in previous trials which employed 300 mg/d of the same extract. WS 1490 was well tolerated, with no influence on liver function tests and only one trivial adverse event (tiredness) attributable to the study drug. Moderately Positive Compared with placebo, kava extract appears to be an effective symptomatic treatment option for anxiety. The data available from the reviewed studies suggest that kava is relatively safe for short-term treatment (1 to 24 weeks), although more information is required. Further rigorous investigations, particularly into the long-term safety profile of kava are warranted. Moderately Positive Forty patients (2x20) were included into the study. WS1490 was superior to placebo regarding the HAMA (P=0.01) and Bf-S (P=0.002) total scores and all secondary efficacy measures. The tolerance of WS1490 was not inferior to placebo. The study confirms the anxiolytic efficacy and good tolerance of WS1490 and shows that a further symptom reduction is possible after a change-over from benzodiazepine treatment. Moderately Positive HAMA subscores somatic and psychic anxiety, Clinical Global Impression, Self-Report Symptom Inventory-90 Items revised, and Adjective Mood Scale. Adverse events were rare and distributed evenly in both groups. These results support WS 1490 as a treatment alternative to tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines in anxiety disorders, with proven long-term efficacy and none of the tolerance problems associated with tricyclics and benzodiazepines. Moderately Positive Improvement was observed with both treatments but no differences were found in the principal analysis. Post-hoc analyses revealed significant differences based on baseline anxiety severity, whereby kava was superior on the SARA in low anxiety and placebo was superior on the HADS and SARA in high anxiety. Both treatments were well tolerated. Although kava was not superior to placebo, it would be premature to rule it out as efficacious in GAD. Moderately Positive It can be concluded that the applied 150 mg WS 1490 per day is an effective and safe treatment of non-psychotic anxiety syndromes in the described population. Moderately Positive The aqueous Kava preparation produced significant anxiolytic and antidepressant activity and raised no safety concerns at the dose and duration studied. Kava appears equally effective in cases where anxiety is accompanied by depression. This should encourage further study and consideration of globally reintroducing aqueous rootstock extracts of Kava for the management of anxiety. Moderately Positive We conclude that sleep disturbances associated with non-psychotic anxiety disorders can be effectively and safely treated with kava extract WS 1490.

Kava for Aggression

1 study Slightly Positive Although the results show consistent advantages for WS 1490 over placebo in several psychiatric scales and indicate significant improvements in the patients' general well-being, the differences versus placebo were not as large as in previous trials which employed 300 mg/d of the same extract. WS 1490 was well tolerated, with no influence on liver function tests and only one trivial adverse event (tiredness) attributable to the study drug.

Kava for Depression

2 studies Slightly Positive HAMA subscores somatic and psychic anxiety, Clinical Global Impression, Self-Report Symptom Inventory-90 Items revised, and Adjective Mood Scale. Adverse events were rare and distributed evenly in both groups. These results support WS 1490 as a treatment alternative to tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines in anxiety disorders, with proven long-term efficacy and none of the tolerance problems associated with tricyclics and benzodiazepines. Slightly Positive The aqueous Kava preparation produced significant anxiolytic and antidepressant activity and raised no safety concerns at the dose and duration studied. Kava appears equally effective in cases where anxiety is accompanied by depression. This should encourage further study and consideration of globally reintroducing aqueous rootstock extracts of Kava for the management of anxiety.

Kava for Stress

2 studies Slightly Positive Individuals taking kava or valerian reported less pressure during the task at T2 relative to T1. There were no significant differences in BP, HR or subjective reports of pressure between T1 and T2 in the controls. Behavioural performance on the colour/word task did not change between the groups over the two time points. The results suggest that kava and valerian may be beneficial to health by reducing physiological reactivity during stressful situations. Slightly Positive The proportion of patients with no side-effects was 58% with each drug respectively and the 'commonest' effect was vivid dreams with valerian (16%), followed by dizziness with kava (12% ). These compounds may be useful in the treatment of stress and insomnia but further studies are required to determine their relative roles for such indications.

What is Kava used for?

What are Kava's effects on the body?