December 9, 1986

A NUMBER of states are changing their laws to make it easier to commit the mentally ill for involuntary treatment. The changes are reversing a trend that made a person's danger to himself or to others the sole legal grounds for involuntary commitment. Lawyers and psychiatrists have battled for decades over the rights of mental patients and their treatment needs. In the 1970's, the lawyers by and large prevailed, and stringent limitations were placed on involuntary commitment of the mentally ill. Now, the psychiatrists are winning victories, with six states adopting a new standard that makes it possible to commit mentally disturbed people who are unable to provide for basic needs, such as shelter, or who would suffer ''severe and abnormal mental, emotional or physical distress'' if they are not hospitalized. The new laws, in effect, allow hospitalization to prevent a worsening of already existing mental illness or to prevent the physical harm such deterioration might bring.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is gathering information from more than a dozen officials at General Felt Industries and Shearson Lehman Brothers as part of an investigation into possible insider trading in the buyout by the two companies of the Sheller-Globe Corporation earlier this year. David Hershberg, general counsel at Shearson Lehman Brothers, said that 15 executives at the firm, including Shearson's chairman - all of whom worked on the transaction -had been subpoenaed for the investigation, which began last July, a month after the Sheller-Globe buyout was completed. In addition to requesting documents, the S.E.C. has taken depositions from a number of officials and is scheduled to take more, Mr. Hershberg said. General Felt said through a spokesman that several of its executives had been asked by the commission to provide information about the circumstances surrounding the buyout, but that no formal subpoenas had been issued to them. Both Shearson Lehman and General Felt said that they were cooperating fully with the formal investigation. An S.E.C. spokesman said the commission would not comment on the case.

A Nassau County man has been jailed, caught by a computer that contends he paid two unauthorized visits to his girlfriend. The prisoner, 25-year-old Barry W. Ryan, was convicted in October of attempted petty larceny and was one of the first criminals sentenced to serve time at home under the county's new electronic detention system. He was ordered detained for 90 days. Mr. Ryan is now the first in the county to be accused of violating the electronic system, which is also in use in West Palm Beach, Fla., and a few other communities.

Representative Jim Wright of Texas was chosen today to be the new Speaker of the House, and he quickly suggested that Congress might delay the tax cuts for higher-income taxpayers in an overhaul of the tax code adopted earlier this year. House Democrats also chose Representative Thomas S. Foley of Washington to replace Mr. Wright as majority leader. In the only contested race, Representative Tony Coelho of California defeated Representative Charles B. Rangel of Manhattan for majority whip, the third-ranking leadership post on the Democratic side. Proposal to Reduce Deficit Under the new tax law, the top personal income tax rate would fall from 50 percent this year to 38.5 percent next year and to 28 percent in 1988. Under Mr. Wright's proposal, the rate would be frozen at 38.5 percent to help reduce the budget deficit, which could exceed $160 billion in the current fiscal year.

A POTENTIALLY important anticancer substance is leading a double life that promises to help clarify the bright and dark sides of the human body's reaction to disease. Scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and at several other institutions are looking for the bright side - the possible weapon against human cancer. At Rockefeller University, just across York Avenue from Sloan-Kettering, other scientists are exploring the dark side as their surprising recent findings indicate that the powerful natural substance could have a deadly role. As the two groups of scientists use all of the available tools of molecular biology to explore this tantalizing material, the one sure result is a greater respect for the complexity of the immune defense system. The researchers at Sloan-Kettering call it tumor necrosis factor. The group at Rockefeller call it cachectin. The two names represent the same protein, a known string of 157 amino acids. But there is substantial difference of opinion and much still to be learned about the protein.