Augmented Reality Treatment May Alleviate Phantom Limb Pain

Zothecula writes with this excerpt from GizMag: "Studies have shown that a large percentage of amputees feel pain in their missing limbs. ... The ailment has so far proven difficult to treat, but a new study suggests therapy involving augmented reality and gaming could stimulate these unused areas of the brain (full journal article), resulting in a significant reduction in discomfort. ... In testing the treatment, the team used myolectric pattern recognition to predict phantom movements in the stump of a chronic PLP patient. By using the patterns as inputs in an augmented setting where a virtual arm was superimposed on the patient's real-life body, as well as controlling a car racing game, the team were able to gradually reduce the pain reported by the patient to zero." The study is an early one: there's only a single test subject, but one that had no success with any other form of treatment.

Easier solution

[Anonymous Coward]

If you know anyone who has experiences phantom pain, I would suggest Mirror Therapy. Anyone can try it for the cost of a $20 mirror from Wal-Mart. It works. Takes about 4 weeks, 15 minutes per day. You won't have to wait for the Virtual Reality goggles to come to a store near you. This will get you started... http://blog.ted.com/2008/03/21/phantom_limb_pa/

Re:Easier solution

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the authors of the study are quite aware of mirror therapy given how many times it is mentioned in just the abstract of the article, and that they point out this particular patient was not responding to it.