Re: Hey Jude: Get that song out my head! (May 28, 2010): Despite the positive spin you place on these infections, I can tell you from personal experience, they can be *quite* problematic.

A couple months ago, I got a U2 song stuck in my head and it wouldn’t let me sleep at night and when I woke up, it was there. Yes, I was under a great deal of stress and had some personal turmoil in my life, but I never thought music would affect me that way.

I told my doctor about it and he put me on Celexa. That helped and it eventually went away. I am no longer on the medication. I have been musical all my life, so I have had earworms before. But I have never had a song stick so badly that I had to seek medical help.

Of interest also, was that my grandmother used to complain of her upstairs neighbor playing the piano loudly. There was no piano upstairs. Many years later, I read of musical hallucinations. I think she was having them. I hope it does not run in families!

Leila M. McMichael