Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Alternative medicine
By Mayo Clinic staffCertain dietary and herbal supplements claim to have calming and anti-anxiety benefits. Before you take any of these for agoraphobia, consult your health care professionals. Although these supplements are available over-the-counter, they still pose possible health risks in some people.
For example, the herbal treatment called kava is marketed as a treatment for anxiety. Studies have found that kava may effectively reduce anxiety, but the supplement has been linked to multiple cases of severe liver damage. Several countries, including Canada, have banned the sale of kava due to safety concerns. The Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings about kava but hasn't banned the sale of kava in the United States.
- Agoraphobia. In: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR. 4th ed. Arlington, Va.: American Psychiatric Association; 2000. http://www.psychiatryonline.com. Accessed March 10, 2009.
- Hollander E, et al. Panic disorders. In: Hales RE, et al., eds. The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry. 5th ed. Arlington, Va.: American Psychiatric Association; 2008. http://www.psychiatryonline.com. Accessed March 10, 2009.
- Ciechanowski P. Overview of phobic disorders in adults. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 3, 2009.
- Shearer SL. Recent advances in the understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice. 2007;34:475.
- Agoraphobia. In: Moore DP, et al. Handbook of Medical Psychiatry. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/125211023-6/0/1243/85.html?tocnode=52436571&fromURL=85.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-02911-6..X5001-5--section6_797. Accessed March 10, 2009.
- Richardson WH, et al. Herbal drugs of abuse: An emerging problem. Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America. 2007;25:435.
- Hall-Flavin DK (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 12, 2009.
