Mirror therapy

Common card · No. 469482

Mirror therapy (MT) or mirror visual feedback (MVF) is a therapy for pain or disability that affects one side of the patient more than the other side. It was invented in the 1990s by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran to treat patients whose limb had been amputated and who had phantom limb pain (PLP). Ramachandran created a visual (and psychological) illusion of two intact limbs by putting the patient's affected limb into a "mirror box," with a mirror down the center (facing toward a patient's intact limb). The patient then looks into the mirror on the side with the good limb and makes "mirror symmetric" movements, as a symphony conductor might, or as a person does when they clap their hands. The goal is for the patient to imagine regaining control over a missing limb. Because the subject is seeing the reflected image of the good limb moving, it appears as if the phantom limb is also moving. Through the use of this artificial visual feedback, it becomes possible for the patient to "move" the phantom...

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