Virtual Pain Relief:Virtual limb could provide relief from
phantom limb pain Patients who have lost a limb often feel the
continuing presence of the limb as a 'phantom'. Phantom
sensations can be of touch and movement, but around 65 per cent
of patients develop chronic pain, with sensations of stabbing,
burning or cutting which are often severe. The cause of this
'phantom limb' pain remains unclear and, as with other chronic
pain syndromes, there are few effective therapies. One theory,
says Dr Jonathan Cole, a clinical neurophysiologist at Poole
Hospital and Senior Lecturer at the University of Southampton,
is that a loss of sensory input to the brain causes pain to be
elaborated within the brain itself in some way, although it is
experienced in the phantom limb. But, he points out,"more
recently there has been some evidence that motor outputs or
commands may also have a role in the development of pain".
Anecdotal evidence suggests that pain can be reduced by activity
in the brain involved in imagined moveme