Treating Phantom Limbs

Limited understanding of phantom limbs hinders the effectiveness of treating phantom sensations and pain. There are several theories as to the causes of phantom limbs only two main areas central and peripheral nervous system. The main three treatments are cognitive-behavioral therapy with extinction, pharmaceuticals and mirror therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy retrains the brain to use extinction to perceive the limb is gone. Pharmaceuticals are the most common way of treating conditions and easier to show evidence. Mirror therapy is a newer and becoming commonly associated treatment for phantom limb pain. Cognitive-behavioral therapy shows promise with less risk of side effects by the two persuasive and evidence backed treatments.

Understanding the current theories holds the current approaches to treatments. The two main theories are divided into two groups: central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. Central nervous system concludes that the issues of phantom limb are due to the brain’s plasticity and remapping of the sensations (Moseley & Flor, 2012). The peripheral nervous system is damage and misread signals from the site of phantom to the brain. Growing support for the central nervous system as to the primary cause is from the fact that congenital missing limbs have no reason for miscommunication to the brain (Weeks, Anderson-Barnes & Tsao, 2010). Data is correlation based as to the ethical dilemma of removing a healthy limb from a human being. Understand why certain treatments work may give insight as to the underlying cause of phantom limb sensation.

Cognitive-behaviour therapy is based on the brain’s ability of neuroplasticity as to retrain the brain and learn extinction of the phantom limb. Treatment...

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...tion with other therapies rather than the long term treatment of pain. Cognitive-behaviour therapy seems to have less detrimental effects, though less evidence to support this treatment. More participants, testing different drugs in combination, and recognizing what therapies work from categorizing the underlying causes of phantom limb pain may hold the key into banishing these phantoms forever. Until then, cognitive-behaviour therapy appears to hold the best chance of rehabilitation with the least amount of detrimental effects.

Works Cited

Moseley, L.G., & Flor, H., (2012). Targeting Cortical Representations in the Treatment of

Chronic Pain: A Review. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, XX (X), 1–7. doi:10.1177/1545968311433209 Weeks, S.R., Anderson-Barnes, V.C., & Tsao, J.W., (2010). The Neurologist, 16 (5), 277-286.

doi:10.1097/NRL.0b013e3181edf128