Phantom sensations is a extraordinary phenomenon that most amputees with experience. One might assume that once their limb has been removed they will no longer feel pain for it, however, individuals who are amputees will suffer pain in places that no longer exist, thus why it's called phantom sensations.
There are a couple popular theories to why this happens. The first being that once an amputation is performed all the nerve endings clump together, their clumping causes abnormal pain signals to be sent. This would explain why some individuals would feel pain for a limb that isn’t there.
Another popular theory is that after surgery the blood vessels and nerve endings become too close together. Thus, when more stimulation of blood flow occurs the more pain will occur.
And …show more content…
Such as, the brain giving the lost limbs somatosensory/motor cortex another job. Due to this event the brain will get confused when new signals arrive and might translate as the phantom limb being in pain. While for the spinal cord its believe that once the surgery occurs an abundance of receptors are created which are responsible for pain.
Treating this phenomenon has proven to be quite difficult. Typically it followed the analgesic ladder. (Increase pain = increase opioids) However, interestingly another treatment has provided with great results known as the mirror treatment. This is where a patient looks in a mirror and is told to pretend that their limb is still there. The doctor then massages one of their already existing limbs and this ‘tricks’ the brain into believing their is no pain for the non existing limb. This current treatment has the best results.
One question I have for this phenomenon is why individuals with bad psych coping skills suffer more pain? Do individuals with certain brain structure from these bad coping skills affect how badly they feel pain in their non existent
There are a couple popular theories to why this happens. The first being that once an amputation is performed all the nerve endings clump together, their clumping causes abnormal pain signals to be sent. This would explain why some individuals would feel pain for a limb that isn’t there.
Another popular theory is that after surgery the blood vessels and nerve endings become too close together. Thus, when more stimulation of blood flow occurs the more pain will occur.
And …show more content…
Such as, the brain giving the lost limbs somatosensory/motor cortex another job. Due to this event the brain will get confused when new signals arrive and might translate as the phantom limb being in pain. While for the spinal cord its believe that once the surgery occurs an abundance of receptors are created which are responsible for pain.
Treating this phenomenon has proven to be quite difficult. Typically it followed the analgesic ladder. (Increase pain = increase opioids) However, interestingly another treatment has provided with great results known as the mirror treatment. This is where a patient looks in a mirror and is told to pretend that their limb is still there. The doctor then massages one of their already existing limbs and this ‘tricks’ the brain into believing their is no pain for the non existing limb. This current treatment has the best results.
One question I have for this phenomenon is why individuals with bad psych coping skills suffer more pain? Do individuals with certain brain structure from these bad coping skills affect how badly they feel pain in their non existent