title: Home-based self-delivered mirror therapy for phantom pain: a pilot study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of self-delivered home-based mirror therapy for phantom pain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Uncontrolled prospective treatment outcome pilot study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty community-dwelling adults with unilateral amputation and phantom pain > 3 on a 0-10 numeric rating scale enrolled either during a one-time study visit (n = 30) or remotely (n = 10).
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants received an explanation of mirror therapy and were asked to self-treat for 25 min daily. Participants completed and posted back sets of outcomes questionnaires at months 1 and 2 post-treatment. Main outcome was average phantom pain intensity at post-treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A significant reduction in average phantom pain intensity was found at month 1 (n = 31, p = 0.0002) and at month 2 (n = 26, p = 0.002). The overall median percentage reduction at month 2 was 15.4%. Subjects with high education (> 16 years) compared with low education (< 16 years) (37.5% vs 4.1%) had greater reduction in pain intensity (p = 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings support the feasibility and efficacy of home-based self-delivered mirror therapy; this low-cost treatment may defray medical costs, therapy visits, and the patient travel burden for people with motivation and a high level of education. More research is needed to determine methods of cost-effective support for people with lower levels of education.
authors.affiliation: Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 Sam Jackson Park Road, UHN-2, Portland, OR 97239, USA. darnallb@ohsu.edu
authors.forename: Beth D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Darnall
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000671:Amputation, Surgical / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006794:Household Articles; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010591:Phantom Limb / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012648:Self Care; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome