Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An occupational therapy assistant using mirror therapy to address phantom pain. Mirror therapy (MT) or mirror visual feedback (MVF) is a therapy for pain or disability that affects one side of the patient more than the other side. It was invented by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran to treat post-amputation patients who had phantom limb pain (PLP ...
Upon the unavoidable amputation of a limb, physical therapy may be introduced as an additional medical approach pre- and post-amputation to minimize phantom limb pain and limb telescoping following the surgical procedure. [13] Prior to any intervention, there must be a complete assessment of the patients' condition to identify their issues.
It allows for illusions of movement and touch in a phantom limb by inducing somatosensory and motor pathway coupling between the phantom and real limb. [23] Many patients experience pain as a result of a clenched phantom limb, and because phantom limbs are not under voluntary control, unclenching becomes impossible. [37]
Health psychology attempts to find treatments to reduce or eliminate pain, as well as understand pain anomalies such as episodic analgesia, causalgia, neuralgia, and phantom limb pain. Although the task of measuring and describing pain has been problematic, the development of the McGill Pain Questionnaire [64] has helped make progress in this area.
A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb is still attached. It is a chronic condition which is often resistant to treatment. [1] When the cut ends of sensory fibres are stimulated during thigh movements, the patient feels as if the sensation is arising from the non-existent limb.
The mirror box gives visual feedback that can allow a person using it the opportunity to "see" the missing hand, and to manipulate the hand in an attempt to relieve pain or discomfort. Virtual reality is also used to treat phantom limb pain in a similar way, by allowing the user to "see" the missing limb within the virtual world and manipulate ...
Ramachandran thought that phantom pain might be caused by the mismatch between different parts of an amputee's nervous systems: the visual system says the limb is missing, but the somatosensory system (processing body sensations such as touch and limb position) says the limb is still there. The so-called mirror box was a simple apparatus that ...
The dysesthetic tissue may also not be part of a limb, but part of the body, such as the abdomen. The majority of individuals with both phantom limb and dysesthesia experience painful sensations. [citation needed] Phantom pain refers to dysesthetic feelings in individuals who are paralyzed or who were born without limbs. It is caused by the ...