Phantom limb pain is an extremely difficult thing to treat, as anyone who has ever experienced this can relate to. Although not physically there, a phantom limb can be quite painful, so much so that those experiencing it have a severe decline in the quality of their life. They may be in need of in-home care or some other type of long term care. They might even be in a nursing home because of the issues that this causes when it comes to their ability to care for themselves.
A phantom limb is the sensation that is experienced when an amputee still has feeling in a limb that has been amputated. For example, if a diabetes patient were to have their foot amputated because of complications with the disease, but they were to still feel their foot after the surgery was completed, this would be described as a phantom limb. When pain occurs, it is extremely tough to treat because it is not actual pain. Yes, it hurts, and in that sense it is a very real thing. But because the limb is no longer there, this is actually described as a disorder of the brain. It either occurs because the brain believes that the limb is still there, or because the brain is fixated on memories of pain that once occurred in that limb.
For this reason, both medical and nonmedical treatments have been approaching phantom limb pain for many years. None of the treatments have yielded perfect results when it comes to alleviating this pain. Some of the more common treatments include mirror therapy, acupuncture, medication, and even implanted nerve stimulators. In many cases, nothing has helped these individuals to reduce the pain that they experience. In some extreme situations, these people are consistently being medicated, and their overall health is negatively impacted as a result of this.
In a recent study, researchers used augmented reality to help some of those individuals suffering from difficult to treat cases of phantom limb pain to see if any results could be seen. 14 individuals who had had an arm amputated took part in this trial. The average length of time that they had been battling pain was about ten years. The new method of treatment was attempted over the course of 12 sessions, and reported pain was reduced by 50 percent. Some of the patients in the study had undergone as many as four different types of pain management treatments.
This is extremely exciting news for those that have suffered from phantom limb pain and have not found relief. Augmented reality is basically used here to mimic what motion in the missing limb would be, and the person being treated is able to visually experience what the movement would be. It relies on virtual reality, and mixes a little physical therapy into the treatment, too. Artificial intelligence and electrodes that pick up skin signals also play a large role in this treatment. It’s currently being called phantom motor execution.
And although this method is new, there could be promise that the new pain management technique can translate over into other areas. This is especially promising for elderly individuals suffering from chronic pain.
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