AUTHOR=Finn Sacha B. , Perry Briana N. , Clasing Jay E. , Walters Lisa S. , Jarzombek Sandra L. , Curran Sean , Rouhanian Minoo , Keszler Mary S. , Hussey-Andersen Lindsay K. , Weeks Sharon R. , Pasquina Paul F. , Tsao Jack W. 

TITLE=A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Mirror Therapy for Upper Extremity Phantom Limb Pain in Male Amputees

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2017

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2017.00267

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2017.00267

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<sec id="ST1"><title>Objective</title><p>Phantom limb pain (PLP) is prevalent in patients post-amputation and is difficult to treat. We assessed the efficacy of mirror therapy in relieving PLP in unilateral, upper extremity male amputees.</p></sec><sec id="ST2"><title>Methods</title><p>Fifteen participants from Walter Reed and Brooke Army Medical Centers were randomly assigned to one of two groups: mirror therapy (<italic>n</italic> = 9) or control (<italic>n</italic> = 6, covered mirror or mental visualization therapy). Participants were asked to perform 15 min of their assigned therapy daily for 5 days/week for 4 weeks. The primary outcome was pain as measured using a 100-mm Visual Analog Scale.</p></sec><sec id="ST3"><title>Results</title><p>Subjects in the mirror therapy group had a significant decrease in pain scores, from a mean of 44.1 (SD = 17.0) to 27.5 (SD = 17.2) mm (<italic>p</italic> = 0.002). In addition, there was a significant decrease in daily time experiencing pain, from a mean of 1,022 (SD = 673) to 448 (SD = 565) minutes (<italic>p</italic> = 0.003). By contrast, the control group had neither diminished pain (<italic>p</italic> = 0.65) nor decreased overall time experiencing pain (<italic>p</italic> = 0.49). A pain decrement response seen by the 10th treatment session was predictive of final efficacy.</p></sec><sec id="ST4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>These results confirm that mirror therapy is an effective therapy for PLP in unilateral, upper extremity male amputees, reducing both severity and duration of daily episodes.</p></sec><sec id="ST5"><title>Registration</title><p>NCT0030144 <uri xlink:href="http://ClinicalTrials.gov" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ClinicalTrials.gov</uri>.</p></sec>