HERB ABLE TO TREAT MENTAL ILLNESS

Preliminary findings in a small local test indicate St. John's wort, a
popular herbal medication, is safe and effective in treating mental
illnesses such as obsessive compulsive disorder.

Dr. Leslie Taylor, a Dean Medical Center psychiatrist, said on Tuesday
that eight patients with Obsessive Compulsion Disorder are being given
St. John's wort for 12 weeks. Last week, nine weeks into the test,
early results were summarized.

''Preliminary results indicate that St. John's wort is safe and
effective for OCD,'' Taylor said.

The Dean Foundation for Health Research and Education successfully
competed to be one of 10 sites in a new national study on the
effectiveness of the St. John's wort in treating major depression,
Taylor said.

That study, which she said is funded by the National Institute of
Mental Health and the federal Office of Alternative Medicine, started
around the first of the year and is comparing St. John's wort to a
placebo and to the anti-depressant drug Zoloft, she said.

Taylor's smaller eight-patient trial on OCD patients is a separate
test, she said.

OCD is an anxiety disorder in which patients usually engage in ritual
behaviors, such as checking things excessively, being overly concerned
about germs and hoarding things, Taylor said.

Taylor said interest in St. John's wort, an herbal compound common in
Europe and regulated as a anti-depression prescription drug in
Germany, is high.

But, she said, because it is not regulated in this country, consumers
often waste money by buying brands of St. John's wort that do not
contain enough active ingredients to help.

''There is tremendous public interest in St. John's wort, but
physicians have very, very little information to help patients decide
whether herbal medications are safe and effective,'' she said.

Dr. Paul Hutson , associate professor in the UW-Madison Pharmacy
School, said the U.S. Pharmacopoeia, a nonprofit organization, is
trying to develop guidelines for using herbal medicines.

The problem with St. John's wort, he said Tuesday, is that the
industry is unsure which ingredient in the compound medicates.

''They are trying to standardize some of these herbs,'' Hutson said,
''but they are not really sure what they should be standardizing to.''

Common theory is that the industry should be standardizing the
compound to the hypericin content, he said.

''Now they are not so sure,'' Hutson said. ''Perhaps we are
standardizing to wrong thing. It's hard to know at this point the
quality of the product.''

Hutson said he recommends finding out what brand of St. John's wort
was used in successful trials.

Taylor said LI 160, a German product manufactured by Lichtwer, is
being used in the Dean trials. It is available locally, she said, as
KIRA.

Hutson said he tells his pharmacy students to ''go with the
innovator's product,'' rather than the generic form of St. John's wort.

''If the Dean study showed St. John's wort was successful with
depression, I would suggest people use the product that they tested,''
he said.

Generic brands have to have the same concentrations of active
ingredients as the innovator's brands, he said. ''But they don't need
to prove that the generic brands has the same therapeutic benefit.''

Taylor said, because St. John's wort is a botanical compound that can
be purchased over the counter in this country, patients don't take it
as seriously as a medical prescription.

People tend to take St. John's wort erratically or insufficiently, she

said. ''You really have to take it three times a day for a month
before you notice any change in mood,'' she said.

It takes prescription anti-depressants such as Prozac and Zoloft just
as long to work, she said.

Previous studies indicate that St. John's wort is successful in
treating depression, she said. ''If St. John's wort is an effective
anti-depressant, then it should be taken as seriously as any other
anti-depressant.''

Hutson said Prozac and other similar drugs are extremely popular and
will remain so. ''It's interesting, though, that in Germany St. John's
wort outsells Prozac 8 or 9 to 1.''

The Dean Foundation hopes to enroll between 15 and 20 patients
suffering from major depression in its part of the national study.
Among those excluded from participating are women who are pregnant,
lactating or trying to be pregnant, she said, as well as individuals
under 18 years of age and people who are suicidal.

Anyone interested in participating can call (800) 844-6015 or
827-2300.