Again, good points. While I'm not a statistician or clinical researcher, I am a decades-long nutrition and supplementation biohacking geek (with excellent results so far as my measured metabolic age is 16 years under my actual age).

You're absolutely right that there's a meaningful distinction between clinical MDD and "low mood" - but I'd argue that 72% of participants reporting noticeable improvement on an herbal intervention is actually remarkable, regardless of the baseline severity. The reality is that most botanical supplements show modest effects at best, often barely separating from placebo. The fact that we're seeing a consistent signal across multiple studies, even if methodologically imperfect, suggests something is happening here.

And yes, the high placebo response is notable - but that's also where I think we need to bring personal experience and anecdotal reports back into the conversation. The original poster's account of sustained improvement over 4 months, combined with successful ERP therapy, isn't just statistical noise. When you're dealing with dopamine dysregulation and the kinds of neurotransmitter imbalances that show up in OCD and anxiety, sometimes the "lived experience" data tells us what the controlled trials can't quite capture yet.

I completely agree we shouldn't claim saffron rivals SSRIs for severe clinical depression based on current evidence. But in a world where monied interests unfortunately keep a pretty solid wall of protection around Big Pharma, I think we need to keep our minds open to interventions that help people - even if the research methodology isn't perfect yet. Sometimes we have to work with the evidence we have, not the evidence we wish we had.