phantom pain article

[Mark N]

I ran across this article while on refdesk. It is an interesting idea but I wonder how it works and if it is a very reliable approach as I am not sure tricking the brain will work most of the time. But sense Pete brought up phantom pain I thought some would be interested in this.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4Q_BpM8ouBD7MSjfQIxG-Z8s0mA

[Peter B]

Mark,
You are, without a doubt, the most considerate person on this board. I don't mean to ruffle anyone's feathers; everyone here is sweeter than sugar.

I found the article most interesting. I'm going to give this a try. I'm sure I can get my brother to try a few different things with me. I wonder if this concept is the reason why changing my "real shoe" makes me feel like the missing foot has had that same shoe changed.

Thank you very much Mark. I'm probably the only one on this board who will have any use for this info. Though I understand your point in that this could further our understanding of how pain works on the brain in a broader sense.

The article speaks about "tricking" the brain. Isn't that the function of the meds we all take, to trick the brain, chemically?

[Mark N]

Pete, I have been interested in this concept as one thing that has been found out with athletes that have an immobilized limb exercising the other limb causes the immobilized limb to increase in size too. It isn't a one for one increase but for a top athlete, keeping the injured limb from losing so much strength. Is the reason you have phantom pain the same reason a limb that isn't exercised can improve its size by exercising only the healthy limb. There is a connection between our brains and our bodies that needs to be found and it could have real implications for our pain treatment.