is valerian fda approved?

no. in the united states it is a dietary supplement under the 1994 dietary supplement health and education act, so the fda does not review it for safety or effectiveness, does not verify what is in the bottle, and has never approved it for insomnia or anything else; its separate listing as a safe food flavouring is about flavouring quantities. in the european union the european medicines agency’s herbal monograph recognises a well-established use for one ethanolic dry extract for mild nervous tension and sleep disorders and a traditional use for other preparations, with the medicine restricted to adults and not recommended in pregnancy.

does valerian work for anxiety?

there is almost no evidence either way. a cochrane review searched the trial registers and contacted manufacturers and found exactly one eligible randomised trial, a four-week pilot study in 36 people with generalised anxiety disorder, and valerian did not differ from placebo on the hamilton anxiety scale. the reviewers concluded there is insufficient evidence to draw any conclusion. that review is now twenty years old and no larger trial has appeared in the library since.

what are the side effects of valerian, and is it safe?

its safety record in trials is good: adverse events were rare and mild, headache, dizziness, daytime drowsiness, stomach upset and occasionally paradoxical excitability, with no serious events across people aged 7 to 80 in the largest review. the documented risks are additive sedation with alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids, antihistamines and other depressants, which can impair driving and breathing; isolated reports of benzodiazepine-like withdrawal after long heavy use; and occasional liver injury reports, mostly with multi-herb products where valerian’s role is unclear. it has not been studied in pregnancy, breastfeeding or liver disease, and the ema advises against it in pregnancy and under age 12.

can you take valerian with alcohol or sleeping pills?

the harvest records valerian as a sedative that adds to the effect of alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids, antihistamines and other central nervous system depressants, so the combination can impair driving and breathing, and the ema monograph says valerian may impair the ability to drive or operate machinery on its own. no trial on this page tested the combination. whether a particular combination matters for a particular person is a question for a prescriber or pharmacist who knows what else is being taken.

Supplement evidence

Valerian

A good safety record and an unconvincing efficacy record.

page first published 2026-09-08 · last updated 2026-10-05

Not an FDA-approved treatmentSold as a dietary supplement5 studies on this page

What Its Legal Status Actually Means

Read this before anything below it. Legal to sell is not the same fact as reviewed, verified, or approved.

Valerian is sold in the United States as a dietary supplement under DSHEA, so it needs no FDA review of efficacy, safety, or potency before sale, and it has never been FDA-approved to treat insomnia, anxiety, or anything else. Valerian oil and extract are separately listed as generally recognised as safe for use as food flavourings, which is a statement about flavouring quantities and not an endorsement of therapeutic doses. In Europe the EMA has issued a herbal monograph covering traditional use for mild nervous tension and sleep, a category based on longstanding use rather than proof of efficacy. Because it is a supplement, no authority verifies what is in the bottle: preparations differ enormously between whole root or rhizome and alcoholic or aqueous extracts, several of the active constituents (notably the valepotriates and valerenic acid) are chemically unstable and degrade on the shelf, and the published trials used doses, extracts, and treatment lengths that vary so widely they cannot be compared cleanly.

Quoted whole from the 2026-08-18 study harvest. Not summarized, not shortened.

does valerian work for sleep? what the trials, the guideline and the regulators say

there is no fda label for valerian, because in the united states it is sold as a dietary supplement and has never been reviewed for safety or effectiveness; in the european union it is a traditional herbal medicine with an ema monograph. the regulatory facts below come from the legal-status paragraph above, written from the regulator’s documents in the 2026-08-18 study harvest, and from the ema monograph page read on the verification date; every trial figure is from a study record on this page. every source is linked at the end of this section. last checked 2026-10-05.

valerian root has been taken for sleep for centuries and is one of the most-bought sleep supplements in the united states. it also has one of the longest trial records of any supplement on this site, and that record has a shape worth knowing before buying it: the early, weaker trials found something, the later, better ones found nothing, the most recent pooled estimate crosses zero, and the sleep-medicine guideline recommends against it. its safety record, on the other hand, is good. this section covers the trials and the regulators in both directions, with the funders named. every figure is from a study record on this page or a regulator document linked at the end.

this is information to take to a prescriber or pharmacist. nothing here tells anyone to take valerian or to stop, and nothing here is a reason to put off treatment that works for insomnia, which the guideline cited below says is cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia first.

what its legal status means, and does not mean

in the united states valerian is sold over the counter as a dietary supplement under the 1994 dietary supplement health and education act: the fda does not review it for safety or effectiveness before sale, does not verify what is in the bottle, and has never approved it to treat insomnia, anxiety or anything else. valerian oil and extract are separately listed as generally recognised as safe for use as food flavourings, which is a statement about flavouring quantities and not an endorsement of therapeutic doses [status]. preparations differ enormously, from whole root to alcoholic or water extracts, and several of the constituents thought to be active, the valepotriates and valerenic acid, are chemically unstable and degrade on the shelf, so two bottles with the same name can contain different things [status].

in the european union the picture is different and narrower than "approved". the european medicines agency’s herbal monograph on valerian root, adopted in february 2016 to replace a 2005 version, with a second revision in progress (its call for data closed in may 2025), recognises a well-established use for one preparation, an ethanolic dry extract, "for the relief of mild nervous tension and sleep disorders", and a traditional use for other preparations (juice, water and methanolic extracts, tinctures) for mild symptoms of mental stress and to aid sleep, a category based on at least 30 years of documented use rather than on proof of efficacy [ema; status]. the monograph says the medicine is not for children under 12, is not recommended in pregnancy or breastfeeding, and may impair the ability to drive or operate machinery [ema]. a product sold in europe under the monograph has to be made to a pharmaceutical standard; a bottle sold in the united states does not.

what the trials measured, in whom, and for how long

four syntheses carry the sleep evidence, and they disagree. the first pooled 16 randomised placebo-controlled trials in 1,093 people and could extract one common outcome, whether sleep quality was reported as improved or not, from six of them [bent-2006]. the second reviewed 37 studies, 29 controlled trials for efficacy and safety and eight open-label trials for safety, and weighed each by its quality and date [taibi-2007]. the third, the most recent, pooled 10 placebo-controlled trials in 1,065 people on subjective sleep quality and seven on anxiety [shinjyo-2020]. the fourth is the american academy of sleep medicine’s guideline for chronic insomnia in adults, which graded the whole literature with the grade system [aasm-2017].

for anxiety there is one cochrane review, and it found one trial: a four-week pilot study in 36 people with generalised anxiety disorder comparing valerian, diazepam and placebo [miyasaka-2006]. what was not measured matters too. the trials used doses, extracts and treatment lengths that vary too widely to compare cleanly [status], none ran for more than a few weeks, and none tested the product in the bottle a reader would buy for its content.

what the research says, in both directions

in favour. in the six trials that reported sleep quality as improved or not, people on valerian were more likely to say it improved (relative risk 1.8, 95% ci 1.2 to 2.9) [bent-2006]. the most recent meta-analysis found a larger effect for whole root or rhizome than for extracts (standardised effect 0.83, 95% ci 0.03 to 1.62, four trials, against 0.10, −0.02 to 0.22, six trials) and attributed the inconsistency between trials to the preparation [shinjyo-2020]. the safety record is consistently good: adverse events in the trials were rare and mild, headache, dizziness, daytime drowsiness, stomach upset and occasionally paradoxical excitability, with no serious events across people aged 7 to 80 in the largest review [taibi-2007; risks].

against, or smaller than the badge suggests. the authors of the positive pooled estimate qualify it in the same breath: most trials had significant methodological problems, doses and preparations varied, and there was evidence of publication bias in that very summary measure, meaning negative trials are probably missing, and their conclusion is the hedged "valerian might improve sleep quality" [bent-2006]. the quality-weighted review found that most studies showed no difference between valerian and placebo, in healthy sleepers and in people with insomnia alike, and that "none of the most recent studies, which were also the most methodologically rigorous, found any effect on sleep"; its title is "safe but not effective" [taibi-2007]. the most recent meta-analysis’s primary result is not statistically significant (0.36, 95% ci −0.08 to 0.81) with severe heterogeneity (i-squared 85%) and a funnel plot showing missing studies; the whole-root finding above is a post hoc subgroup of four trials whose interval nearly touches zero [shinjyo-2020]. the guideline says: "we suggest that clinicians not use valerian as a treatment for sleep onset or sleep maintenance insomnia (versus no treatment) in adults", in the same list that recommends against melatonin, diphenhydramine, trazodone and tryptophan; the recommendation is graded weak, which under grade reflects low certainty in the evidence rather than proof of no effect, and every one of the guideline’s 14 recommendations is weak [aasm-2017]. for anxiety, the one trial found no difference from placebo on the hamilton anxiety scale or on its somatic or psychic subscores, and cochrane concluded there is insufficient evidence to draw any conclusion [miyasaka-2006].

who paid. the 2006 meta-analysis and the 2007 review were both supported by us national institutes of health grants, including the national center for complementary and integrative health [bent-2006; taibi-2007]. the 2020 meta-analysis declares no funding; one of its authors is affiliated with a uk herbal-medicine education organisation, so it is not independent of the field it reviews [shinjyo-2020]. the guideline’s funding statement could not be read; the cochrane review lists no sponsor [aasm-2017; miyasaka-2006].

what the harvest records as risks

the honest problem with valerian is not danger but futility [risks]. the risks that are documented: it is a sedative and adds to the effect of alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids, antihistamines and other central nervous system depressants, so combining them can impair driving and breathing; abrupt discontinuation after long, heavy use has produced benzodiazepine-like withdrawal in isolated case reports; occasional liver injury has been reported, usually with multi-herb products in which valerian’s role is unclear, and no systematic review of valerian liver injury alone was found, so none is claimed here; and it has not been studied in pregnancy, breastfeeding or liver disease [risks; exclusions]. the ema’s restriction to adults and its advice against use in pregnancy point the same way [ema].

the larger risk is practical. someone with chronic insomnia who takes valerian for months is postponing cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, the first-line treatment with evidence behind it, and someone whose insomnia is a symptom of depression, anxiety or sleep apnoea is leaving the condition untreated [risks].

questions for a prescriber or pharmacist about valerian

each one comes from a warning or a study above. they are questions, not instructions; the answers depend on a history nobody here has.

is my sleep problem short-term, or has it lasted months? the guideline that recommends against valerian recommends cbt for insomnia first; is that available to me?
the best-designed trials found no difference from placebo. what are you expecting valerian to do for me that a placebo would not?
could my insomnia be a symptom of something else, depression, anxiety or sleep apnoea, that we should look at first?
i drink in the evening, or take a sleeping pill, an antihistamine, a benzodiazepine or an opioid. valerian adds to those; does that change anything for me?
if i have been taking a lot of it for a long time, is there any reason to come off it gradually rather than at once?
i am pregnant, breastfeeding or have a liver condition. the trials did not include people like me and the ema advises against use in pregnancy; what would you want to know first?
the trials used whole root in some and extracts in others, and the content of either degrades on the shelf. does the product i have say what it contains and how it was tested?

questions people ask

does valerian work for sleep?: probably not, or not measurably. a 2006 meta-analysis of 16 trials found people on valerian were 1.8 times as likely to say their sleep quality improved, but its authors flagged methodological problems and publication bias in that same result. a 2007 review that weighed trials by quality found most showed no difference from placebo and that none of the most recent, most rigorous studies found any effect. the most recent meta-analysis (2020) found no significant effect overall. the american academy of sleep medicine’s 2017 guideline suggests clinicians not use valerian for chronic insomnia in adults; the recommendation is graded weak, as are all 14 in that guideline.
is valerian fda approved?: no. in the united states it is a dietary supplement under the 1994 dietary supplement health and education act, so the fda does not review it for safety or effectiveness, does not verify what is in the bottle, and has never approved it for insomnia or anything else; its separate listing as a safe food flavouring is about flavouring quantities. in the european union the european medicines agency’s herbal monograph recognises a well-established use for one ethanolic dry extract for mild nervous tension and sleep disorders and a traditional use for other preparations, with the medicine restricted to adults and not recommended in pregnancy.
does valerian work for anxiety?: there is almost no evidence either way. a cochrane review searched the trial registers and contacted manufacturers and found exactly one eligible randomised trial, a four-week pilot study in 36 people with generalised anxiety disorder, and valerian did not differ from placebo on the hamilton anxiety scale. the reviewers concluded there is insufficient evidence to draw any conclusion. that review is now twenty years old and no larger trial has appeared in the library since.
what are the side effects of valerian, and is it safe?: its safety record in trials is good: adverse events were rare and mild, headache, dizziness, daytime drowsiness, stomach upset and occasionally paradoxical excitability, with no serious events across people aged 7 to 80 in the largest review. the documented risks are additive sedation with alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids, antihistamines and other depressants, which can impair driving and breathing; isolated reports of benzodiazepine-like withdrawal after long heavy use; and occasional liver injury reports, mostly with multi-herb products where valerian’s role is unclear. it has not been studied in pregnancy, breastfeeding or liver disease, and the ema advises against it in pregnancy and under age 12.
can you take valerian with alcohol or sleeping pills?: the harvest records valerian as a sedative that adds to the effect of alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids, antihistamines and other central nervous system depressants, so the combination can impair driving and breathing, and the ema monograph says valerian may impair the ability to drive or operate machinery on its own. no trial on this page tested the combination. whether a particular combination matters for a particular person is a question for a prescriber or pharmacist who knows what else is being taken.

sources for this section

the library rows link to our one-page summary of each study, with the original paper, its funding and our evidence grade on that page.

What the Research Shows

5 records from the 2026-08-18 harvest, each checked against PubMed and Europe PMC on that date. How a study was designed, how many people were in it, and who paid for it are printed above what it found, because those three facts decide how much the finding is worth.

Study 1 · 2006
- Meta-analysis of randomized trials
- 1,093 participants
- Reputable journal
- Independently funded
gold standard85/100
Top of the evidence hierarchy, independently funded.
Read this first: The high trust score reflects the quality of this meta-analysis as a piece of evidence synthesis, not the strength of the effect it found. The pooled benefit rests on a subjective, dichotomised outcome in six trials with demonstrated publication bias, and the authors' own conclusion is the hedged "valerian might improve sleep quality," followed by a call for better studies. Twenty years on, those studies have largely not materialised.
Sixteen randomised placebo-controlled trials in 1,093 patients produced one pooled estimate: among the six trials that reported sleep quality as improved-or-not, people taking valerian were more likely to report improvement (relative risk 1.8, 95% CI 1.2-2.9). The authors immediately qualify it — most of the trials had significant methodological problems, doses and preparations varied considerably, and there was evidence of publication bias in that very summary measure, meaning negative trials are likely missing from the literature.
Bent S, Padula A, Moore D, Patterson M, Mehling W. (2006). Valerian for sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Medicine. PMID 17145239.
How this record was checked
PubMed record 17145239 fetched via NCBI efetch 2026-08-18; title, authors, journal, year, DOI, the 16 studies / 1,093 patients count, and the relative risk 1.8 (95% CI 1.2-2.9) confirmed from the abstract. Europe PMC core record fetched 2026-08-18 lists NIH grants K08 AT001338 (NCCIH) and 1 K08 ATO1338-01 (PHS HHS), hence funding INDEPENDENT; the Europe PMC full text for PMC4394901 is not deposited (404), so no conflict-of-interest statement could be read and conflicts is recorded false.
Study 2 · 2007
- Systematic review of randomized trials
- Reputable journal
- Independently funded
strong79/100
Well-supported by good-quality research.
Read this first: This review reaches the opposite conclusion to Bent 2006 from overlapping trials, and the difference is instructive: Taibi weighted trial quality and recency, and found that the better and newer the study, the smaller the effect. That pattern is the signature of a treatment whose apparent benefit comes from weak methods.
Reviewing 37 studies — 29 controlled trials assessed for efficacy and safety plus eight open-label trials assessed for safety — the authors found that most studies showed no significant difference between valerian and placebo, in healthy sleepers and in people with insomnia alike. Critically, none of the most recent studies, which were also the most methodologically rigorous, found any effect on sleep. The evidence supports valerian being safe with only rare adverse events; it does not support its efficacy as a sleep aid.
Taibi DM, Landis CA, Petry H, Vitiello MV. (2007). A systematic review of valerian as a sleep aid: safe but not effective. Sleep Medicine Reviews. PMID 17517355.
How this record was checked
PubMed record 17517355 fetched via NCBI efetch 2026-08-18; title, authors, journal, year, DOI, and the 592 screened / 36 articles describing 37 studies counts confirmed from the abstract. Europe PMC core record fetched 2026-08-18 lists NIH grants P30-NR04001 and T32-NR07039 (NINR) and R21-AT-002108 (NCCIH), hence funding INDEPENDENT; no PMC full text is available, so no conflict-of-interest statement could be read and conflicts is recorded false. Total participant N across the 37 studies is not stated in the abstract, so sampleSize is left null rather than guessed.
Study 3 · 2020
- Meta-analysis of randomized trials
- 1,065 participants
- Indexed journal
- No funding reported
- Declared conflicts of interest
strong75/100
Well-supported by good-quality research.
Read this first: The abstract's conclusion — that "valerian could be a safe and effective herb to promote sleep" — is not supported by the review's own primary pooled result, whose confidence interval crosses zero. The whole-root subgroup finding that the authors lean on rests on four trials and a confidence interval that nearly touches zero, and it is a post-hoc subgroup analysis, the weakest kind of evidence. One co-author is affiliated with Heartwood Education, a UK herbal-medicine education organisation, so the review is not independent of the herbal-medicine field it evaluates.
This review pooled 10 randomised placebo-controlled trials (n=1,065) for subjective sleep quality and found a combined effect size of 0.36 with a 95% confidence interval of -0.08 to 0.81 — that is, not statistically significant — alongside severe heterogeneity (I-squared 85%) and a funnel plot showing missing studies. The same pattern appeared for anxiety across seven trials, with significant publication bias and I-squared of 93%. The authors attribute the inconsistency to variation in preparation, reporting a larger effect for whole root or rhizome (0.83, 95% CI 0.03-1.62, 4 trials) than for extracts (0.10, 95% CI -0.02 to 0.22, 6 trials).
Shinjyo N, Waddell G, Green J. (2020). Valerian Root in Treating Sleep Problems and Associated Disorders-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine. PMID 33086877.
How this record was checked
PubMed record 33086877 fetched via NCBI efetch 2026-08-18; title, authors, journal, year, DOI, and the 60 studies / n=6,894 and 10 studies / n=1,065 counts confirmed from the abstract. Europe PMC full text (PMC7585905) fetched 2026-08-18: pooled effect 0.36 (95% CI -0.08 to 0.81), I-squared 85.33%, funnel plot indicating missing data, and the whole-root (0.83, 95% CI 0.03-1.62) versus extract (0.10, 95% CI -0.02 to 0.22) subgroup estimates all read directly off the article. Its funding statement reads "The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article," hence funding NONE, and the conflicting-interests declaration states none. The Heartwood Education affiliation is taken from the article's own author-affiliation block.
Study 4 · 2017
- Clinical guideline
- Reputable journal
- Funding not established
strong70/100
Well-supported by good-quality research.
Read this first: A WEAK GRADE recommendation against a treatment is not a finding that it is dangerous; it means the trials are too few, too small, and too inconsistent to justify recommending it. The guideline also notes that it downgraded evidence quality across the board because most insomnia drug trials are industry-funded and carry publication-bias risk. It is now nine years old.
After a systematic review of randomised trials graded with GRADE, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued an explicit recommendation against valerian: "We suggest that clinicians not use valerian as a treatment for sleep onset or sleep maintenance insomnia (versus no treatment) in adults." It sits alongside the same negative recommendation for melatonin, diphenhydramine, trazodone, and tryptophan. The recommendation is graded WEAK, which reflects the low certainty of the underlying evidence rather than proof that valerian is harmful.
Sateia MJ, Buysse DJ, Krystal AD, Neubauer DN, Heald JL. (2017). Clinical Practice Guideline for the Pharmacologic Treatment of Chronic Insomnia in Adults: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Clinical Practice Guideline. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. PMID 27998379.
How this record was checked
PubMed record 27998379 fetched via NCBI efetch 2026-08-18; title, authors, journal, year, DOI, and the verbatim valerian recommendation confirmed from the abstract, as was the guideline's GRADE methodology statement. The two Europe PMC commentCorrection entries are ordinary "Comment in" letters (PMIDs 28416045, 28454603), not corrections or retractions. Full text was not retrievable (Europe PMC returned no body for PMC5263087 and NCBI efetch db=pmc returned abstract only), so neither the funding statement nor the task-force disclosure list could be read: funding UNKNOWN, conflicts false.
Study 5 · 2006
- Systematic review of randomized trials
- 36 participants
- Top-tier journal
- Funding not established
- Preregistered
strong75/100
Well-supported by good-quality research.
Read this first: This is a rigorous review of an essentially empty evidence base, and it is now twenty years old. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence — but people buying valerian for anxiety should know that a full Cochrane search found one 36-person pilot study, and it was negative.
Cochrane reviewers searched the trials registers, contacted study authors and valerian manufacturers, and found exactly one eligible randomised trial: a four-week pilot study of 36 people with generalised anxiety disorder comparing valerian, diazepam, and placebo. Valerian did not differ from placebo on total HAM-A scores or on somatic or psychic factor scores. The reviewers concluded there is insufficient evidence to draw any conclusion about valerian for anxiety disorders.
Miyasaka LS, Atallah AN, Soares BG. (2006). Valerian for anxiety disorders. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. PMID 17054208.
How this record was checked
PubMed record 17054208 fetched via NCBI efetch 2026-08-18; title, authors, journal, year, DOI (CD004515.pub2), the single included RCT, and the N=36 generalised anxiety disorder sample confirmed from the abstract. Europe PMC core record checked 2026-08-18: no grant list and no PMC full text deposited, so the Sources of Support section could not be read and funding is recorded UNKNOWN. Preregistered recorded true because Cochrane reviews are preceded by a published protocol.

The Risks

Nobody checks this purchase the way a prescription is checked. No prescriber reviews it against the rest of what you take, no pharmacist screens the interaction, and no regulator confirms the dose in the capsule before it is sold. That is why this section sits here at full length rather than as a footnote.

What the paragraph below covers:

Liver injury
Dependence and withdrawal
Drug interactions
Stomach and gut
Sedation

Valerian's honest problem is not danger but futility: across decades of trials it has a consistently good safety record and a consistently unconvincing efficacy record. The adverse events reported in trials were rare and mild — headache, dizziness, daytime drowsiness, gastrointestinal upset, and occasionally paradoxical excitability — with no serious events across subjects aged 7 to 80 in the largest review. That said, valerian is a sedative and adds to the effect of alcohol, benzodiazepines, opioids, antihistamines, and other central nervous system depressants, so combining them can impair driving and breathing; abrupt discontinuation after long heavy use has been reported to produce benzodiazepine-like withdrawal in isolated cases; occasional hepatotoxicity has been reported, usually with multi-herb products where valerian's role is unclear; and it has not been studied in pregnancy, breastfeeding, or liver disease. The larger risk is practical — someone with genuine chronic insomnia who takes valerian for months is postponing cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, which is the first-line treatment with real evidence behind it, and someone whose insomnia is a symptom of depression, anxiety, or sleep apnoea is leaving the actual condition untreated.

What Is Not Known

The boundaries of the section above, in the harvest’s own words. What it excluded, why, and where it looked and found nothing. An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and it is not evidence of benefit either.

What Was Left Out, and Why

Quoted from the harvest, where these notes sat above the study list rather than after it. Where a note says “below” it means the studies in the section above.

Stevinson & Ernst 2000 (Sleep Med, PMID 10767649) excluded as superseded by Bent 2006 and Taibi 2007, which cover the same trials with more of them.
Multi-herb combination reviews (Sleep Med Rev 25644982; Pharmacol Res 35378276; Evid Based Complement Altern Med 32382286) excluded because they pool valerian with other botanicals and cannot isolate a valerian effect.
Individual small valerian RCTs excluded in favour of the pooled analyses below.
Reports of valerian hepatotoxicity are almost all combination products or single case reports; no verifiable systematic review of valerian liver injury alone was found, so none is claimed here.

The Retraction Check

PubMed efetch records for all five PMIDs fetched 2026-08-18 and inspected for "Retraction in", "Erratum", "Expression of concern", and "Withdrawn" flags; none present. Europe PMC correction lists checked; the only entries are two ordinary "Comment in" letters attached to the AASM guideline, not corrections.

Questions for a Prescriber or Pharmacist

This page does not tell anyone to take Valerian or to avoid it. It is not able to: it does not know what else you take, what you have tried, or what you are treating. These are the questions each study above raises, written to be asked out loud.

The main positive finding for valerian came from six trials that showed signs of publication bias — is it worth my trying it, or should we go straight to something with better evidence for my insomnia?
The best-designed valerian studies all found no effect on sleep — what treatment for my insomnia actually has evidence behind it?
The most recent valerian meta-analysis could not show a significant effect on sleep overall — is there any reason to expect the particular product I'd buy to do better?
The sleep-medicine guideline recommends against valerian for insomnia — what does it recommend instead for someone like me, and does that include CBT for insomnia?
There is only one small trial of valerian for anxiety and it did not beat placebo — what treatment for anxiety would you actually recommend?

And the one to ask at the counter, whatever the answers above turn out to be: given everything I am already taking, what would you want to know about Valerian before I put it in the same body?

Open Valerian in veisund

The app has the resources behind this page and people working through the same questions.What you post there goes to people, not to a model. If someone answers, it is a person who has been there. The one automated message is a crisis-resource reply.

Where This Page Comes From

Transcribed from the study-harvest-2026-08-18 record for valerian, built into this page by scripts/supplement-ingest.mjs on 2026-09-07. Nothing here is fetched at page load, and nothing here was written by a model without a citation behind it.

Source file	study-harvest/2026-08-18/valerian.yaml
Source repo	REPTechnologies/avalo-backend
SHA-256	8060bc5c1222cb57c7d722ff77608f3c3eb8064eb5e7f3116390815006372c1f
Also searched as	Valeriana officinalis, valerian root, all-heal, garden heliotrope, setwall, LI 156, Sedonium

The Other Substances

Do any supplements actually work? asks the question across all of them. The full library has the medication records, the funding investigations, and the glossary.