E with St John's Wort, SSRIs and Syrian Rue

A friend of mine started taking St. John's Wort a couple weeks ago and is wondering if there is any contraindication between that and MDMA, since SJW is a mild MAOI and all. I know someone who had a very bad reaction with MDMA + syrian rue, but I remember others taking MDMA + moclobemide and experiencing no bad effects.

Replies from users

SJW is only a pretty mild MAOI, and perhaps also a mild SSRI. The actual mechanism of action is not known yet, though it (or at least the standardised extracts) do work pretty well as anti-depressants. I don't know of any reports of use with MDMA.
Since both SJW and MDMA are probably active at the serotonin system, there's a chance for problems, though this seems unlikely. Your friend might try a test dose of MDMA, perhaps 40 mg on an empty stomach, best would be to check blood pressure before and after, also look for nausea, sweating, other negative symptoms.

Both SJW and tryptophan seem to combat E tolerance, and also help with mid-week blues. The trytophan is usually taken during the day, then a half hour before pills.

I took St. John's Wort for a few weeks, and found it mildly helpful as an anti-depressant. I combined it with MDMA only once and found the experience of the 'E' effects to be qualitatively no different. However, I did experience nausea and a persistent nagging headache that lasted through the whole experience. I've combined Prozac and Serzone (both SSRIs) with MDMA with no negative effects.