Fecruary 13 , 2003

A Cure for Trichotillomania

Author: Kirtley Thornton, Ph.D.

A nine-year-old boy was referred for psychotherapy for his trichotillomania, which is a condition of obsessive pulling out of the eyebrows and eyelashes. His grades were above average in school. There was no evidence of any learning problems, cognitive disorders or other behavior problems. The family was a very supportive family. He had a younger brother who did not evidence the behavior. Six months of psychotherapy yielded no improvements in behavior.

Neurotherapy was attempted. A blue electrocap was placed on his head with recordings at C3 and C4. He was requested to close his eyes and inform the therapist when he felt the impulse to pull his eyebrows. The raw waveform was displayed on the screen. The Lexicor software was set up to view relative power figures of Delta (0-4 Hz), Theta (4-8 Hz), Alpha (8-13 Hz), and Beta1 (13-32 Hz) and Beta2 (32-64 Hz) with the sampling rate set at 256.

The subject reported when he felt the impulse several times so that the therapist could observe the pattern. There was evidence of Delta activity whenever he felt the impulse to pull his hair. Employing this information, the treatment protocol was set to inhibit relative power of Delta in the C3 and C4 locations. Within 8 sessions, he had stopped pulling his eyebrows and eyelashes and the hair was growing. He was discharged. Six months later he contacted with clinic by letter. He thanked the clinic for their help and provided a picture of himself with a full set of eyebrows and eyelashes.

Seminar Notice
This email is intended to inform you of an upcoming seminar I will be presenting for two days March 1 and 2 via the internet. The seminar will cover my research and articles over the past 8 years regarding the development, findings and applications of a QEEG activation database covering some 18 important cognitive abilities. The research delineates the relationship between cognitive abilities and the QEEG variables. I believe that this information has allowed me to obtain better clinical results than previously obtained in this field. For example, individuals with learning disabilities or brain injuries have been able to improve their auditory memory abilities anywhere from 60% to 1000%. The results have also indicated generalization to other cognitive abilities. For more specific information you can visit the website at chp-neurotherapy.com.

The advantages of this activation database are as follows:
1) The frequency range in the research was extended to 64 Hertz, which resulted in many interesting and significant findings, which are especially relevant to the brain injured population.
2) A comparison of a subject to the activation database on the relevant QEEG variables can result in very specific treatment recommendations.
3) The sample size is a little under 100 and the age range is between 10 and 70.

I am hoping to train individuals in the administration of the activation procedures during the seminar so that they may conduct the evaluations and forward the data to my office for analysis and treatment recommendations. The recommendations will be very specific and involve patented information. The Lexicor equipment is a must as the original research was conducted employing the Lexicor software and algorithms. The seminar will also present a four-hour presentation of the results of the research, covering many fascinating aspects of the data. This presentation was conducted at SNR in 2001. Participants will be provided with 50 short passages, which they can employ to assess the progress in treatment as well as the evaluation procedures. I am presently working on trying to obtain copyright permission to distribute some of the materials that were employed.

The cost of the seminar is $395. Scholarships are available. Participants can choose to participate in either part of the seminar (one-day cost: $195). The seminar will take place via internet and phone conferencing. Part 1 of the seminar will be presented by providing participants with a CD copy of the lecture, which will then be discussed via teleconferencing to avoid travel costs for the participants.

The second part of the seminar will cover how to conduct an activation procedure. This will be conducted through webx. Those interested in this part of the seminar will need to contact me first, as material needs to be mailed. In addition to learning the activation procedure, the treatment recommendation protocols will be discussed. Lexicor protocol files can be provided to those that request them prior the seminar.