Cecile Evans, faculty in the School of Nursing, wrote an article for the July-August issue of InMotion magazine. InMotion magazine is a publication of the Amputee Coalition, the nation’s leading organization on limb loss.
The article listed ten techniques to treat and alleviate phantom limb pain, which is the pain an individual experiences from a part of the body that is no longer physically connected to the body.
Evans listed well-known and popular pain management methods such as massage, acupuncture and chiropractic therapy, but she also described lesser-known trends like mirror therapy, which uses a mirror box to project an image of the intact limb.
“The idea is to trick the brain into believing that the amputated limb is whole and healthy,” Evans explained in the article. “Watching that non-painful limb perform progressive muscle relaxation fills the brain with positive images of a limb without injury.”
Other treatments she noted in the article include wearing silver shrinker socks and using magnets to increase blood flow to decrease burning sensations associated with phantom limb pain.