Neurofeedback

EVERY week for two years, Michael Hammett stared at a computer screen, trying to open a flower with his mind. Hammett had developed a case of carpal tunnel syndrome so severe he needed surgery. But being a former opiate abuser, he refused to use the medications that would be needed to control the resulting pain. Having already tried physical therapy, he set his mind on another alternative: neurofeedback.

EVERY week for two years, Michael Hammett stared at a computer screen, trying to open a flower with his mind. Hammett had developed a case of carpal tunnel syndrome so severe he needed surgery. But being a former opiate abuser, he refused to use the medications that would be needed to control the resulting pain. Having already tried physical therapy, he set his mind on another alternative: neurofeedback.

Now that we have discovered how to turn a buck in harnessing brain waves to play computer games ("Look Ma, No Mouse," Sept. 20), perhaps more consumers will realize that these same brain waves are being used in neurofeedback therapy with great success. Unfortunately, most of the people who could use this help never get to the financial section of your newspaper. GERALD SCHNITZER, Ph.D Los Angeles

Now that we have discovered how to turn a buck in harnessing brain waves to play computer games ("Look Ma, No Mouse," Sept. 20), perhaps more consumers will realize that these same brain waves are being used in neurofeedback therapy with great success. Unfortunately, most of the people who could use this help never get to the financial section of your newspaper. GERALD SCHNITZER, Ph.D Los Angeles

AS they seek to document and demystify one of life's great thrills, scientists have run across some real head-scratchers. How, for example, can they explain the fact that some men and women who are paralyzed and numb below the waist are able to have orgasms? How to explain the "orgasmic auras" that can descend at the onset of epileptic seizures -- sensations so pleasurable they prompt some patients to refuse antiseizure medication? And how on Earth to explain the case of the amputee who felt his orgasms centered in that missing foot?

As they seek to document and demystify one of life's great thrills, scientists have run across some real head-scratchers. How, for example, can they explain the fact that some men and women who are paralyzed and numb below the waist are able to have orgasms? How to explain the "orgasmic auras" that can descend at the onset of epileptic seizures -- sensations so pleasurable they prompt some patients to refuse antiseizure medication?

Abbie Dorn lies in a hospital bed in her parents' home on the South Carolina coast. A halo of dark curls frames her pale face. The pump for her feeding tube clicks softly in the quiet room. Yaakov Cohen, her older brother, settles into a folding chair by her side and begins to read. The subject is accounting. Interest payable. Bonds issued at a discount. Five-year amortization schedules. Abbie begins to cry. Yaakov smooths her forehead, "I know this is a little boring, Abs." She calms.

Pamela Kaman can recount all the times she struggled with her son, Clippers center Chris Kaman, to get him to take his medication while he was growing up. It was a hassle. Chris Kaman was an intelligent, but rambunctious, youth. "There was constant uproar with him," Pamela Kaman said. "You couldn't do normal things. You couldn't go to the movies as a family. It would always turn into a big thing."

I WAS STUNNED to read that an advisory panel recently recommended that the Food and Drug Administration apply its most stringent warning to Ritalin and other stimulant medications commonly used to treat attention deficit disorder. The ominously named "black box" warning is affixed to drugs deemed especially dangerous. But these drugs have been in use for nearly 70 years. Why a black box warning now? I'm a psychiatrist who has ADD.

Some parents of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder will try just about anything to avoid drug treatment -- homeopathy, chiropractic, massage, even faith healing. "There's a label, a stigma that goes with drug treatment," said Dr. Regina Bussing, a child psychiatrist at the University of Florida who conducted a recent survey of 1,600 families in that state.

For those who knew Gerald Levin as the almost Machiavellian 80-hour-a-week chief executive of AOL Time Warner, it will be hard to imagine him as he was this summer in a boat off the Caribbean island of Bimini. When a group of dolphins came swimming by, Levin, although not a great swimmer, donned his snorkel and jumped in. "It was an unbelievable metaphysical experience. You're entering their world," says Levin softly. As he recalls the moment, his voice is modulated to just above a whisper.