Mirror Therapy, Graded Motor Imagery and Virtual Illusion for the Management of Chronic Pain (Protocol)
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Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual illusion for the management of chronic pain (Protocol) Plumbe L, Peters S, Bennett S, Vicenzino B, Coppieters MW Plumbe L, Peters S, Bennett S, Vicenzino B, Coppieters MW. Mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual illusion for the management of chronic pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD010329. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD010329. www.cochranelibrary.com Mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual illusion for the management of chronic pain (Protocol) Copyright © 2013 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. TABLE OF CONTENTS HEADER....................................... 1 ABSTRACT ...................................... 1 BACKGROUND .................................... 1 OBJECTIVES ..................................... 3 METHODS ...................................... 3 REFERENCES ..................................... 6 APPENDICES ..................................... 8 CONTRIBUTIONSOFAUTHORS . 9 DECLARATIONSOFINTEREST . 9 SOURCESOFSUPPORT . 9 Mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual illusion for the management of chronic pain (Protocol) i Copyright © 2013 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [Intervention Protocol] Mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual illusion for the management of chronic pain Lieszel Plumbe1, Susan Peters1, Sally Bennett2, Bill Vicenzino3, Michel W Coppieters1 1Division of Physiotherapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. 2Division of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. 3School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences: Physiotherapy, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia Contact address: Lieszel Plumbe, Division of Physiotherapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queens- land, Brisbane, QLD, Australia. [email protected]. Editorial group: Cochrane Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care Group. Publication status and date: New, published in Issue 1, 2013. Citation: Plumbe L, Peters S, Bennett S, Vicenzino B, Coppieters MW. Mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual il- lusion for the management of chronic pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD010329. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD010329. Copyright © 2013 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. ABSTRACT This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To examine the efficacy of mirror therapy, graded motor imagery, and virtual illusion for improving pain and function levels in chronic pain states, including, but not limited to, chronic regional pain syndrome, phantom limb pain and brachial plexus avulsion injury. BACKGROUND Mirror therapy is most commonly used for conditions involving the extremities. A mirror is placed along a patient’s sagittal midline Creating a visual illusion of a working non-painful body part such that the affected limb is hidden behind the mirror, and the might provide pain relief and functional improvement in a number opposite unaffected limb is reflected in the mirror. The patient of conditions by creating the impression that a missing, painful, looks at this reflection, and gets the illusion of a restored, non- or non-functioning limb is restored and working in a more op- painful and functioning limb. timal way. Visual illusion has been implemented therapeutically through the modalities of mirror therapy, graded motor imagery Graded motor imagery was developed to improve upon mirror and virtual illusion therapy. These therapies have been applied as therapy (Moseley 2004; Moseley 2006). It uses mirror therapy treatment tools in a variety of conditions including chronic re- as a treatment component, but has two additional priming steps: gional pain syndrome (CRPS), phantom limb pain (PLP), brachial left-right recognition and motor imagery (Moseley 2004; Moseley plexus avulsion injury, fibromyalgia, post wrist fracture stiffness, 2005). hand osteoarthritis and stroke (Doyle 2010; Grunert-Pluss 2008; Virtual illusion uses computer technology with the aim of creating Murray 2010; Priganc 2011; Ramachandran 2010; Rothgangel more complex and realistic illusions (Murray 2010). Unlike tradi- 2011; Preston 2011; Thieme 2012; Weeks 2010). tional mirror therapy, virtual illusion is not limited to the illusion Mirror therapy was first reported by Ramachandran 1995 as a of bilateral synchronous limb movements. Using virtual reality to treatment to reduce pain in phantom limb pain after amputation. treat pain by creating an illusion of a functional limb was first Mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual illusion for the management of chronic pain (Protocol) 1 Copyright © 2013 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. reported by O’Neill 2003. there is no evidence of major nerve damage (type I) and where there is evidence of such damage (type 2) (Harden 2005). This review will focus on the application of visual illusion in the form of mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual illusion therapy for improving pain and function in people with chronic pain conditions. We will not include studies looking at the treat- ment of post-stroke CRPS as this is covered in another Cochrane review (Thieme 2012). Mirror therapy is also used as a treatment Description of the intervention for post-stroke sensory and functional impairment. The aforemen- Mirror therapy, graded motor imagery and virtual illusion use tioned and one additional Cochrane review (Doyle 2010) specif- visual illusion to create the impression that a missing, painful, or ically looked at this aspect of mirror therapy, so we will confine non-functioning limb is restored and working in a more optimal our review to chronic pain conditions. way. Mirror therapy A number of non-Cochrane narrative and systematic reviews have Mirror therapy creates the illusion of a restored non-painful body considered the evidence for the use of: 1. virtual illusion for PLP part by replacing visual information of the affected limb with a (Murray 2010), 2. mirror therapy for PLP (Flor 2009; Seidel 2009; reflection of the unaffected limb. To do this, generally the mirror Weeks 2010), 3. mirror therapy for CRPS1 (Daly 2009; McCabe is placed along the patient’s sagittal midline, with the affected limb 2008), 4. mirror therapy for hand conditions (Ezendam 2009; hidden behind the mirror (Ramachandran 1996). The unaffected Grunert-Pluss 2008) and 5. mirror therapy or graded motor im- limb and mirror are positioned such that the unaffected limb is agery for stroke, PLP or CRPS (Rothgangel 2011). This review reflected in the mirror creating the illusion of a restored, normally aims to bring together the evidence for different treatments util- working limb. ising visual illusion (mirror therapy, virtual reality therapy and The patient watches this reflection. Depending on the patient and graded motor imagery) and synthesize the evidence for these treat- the condition, the patient might for example create the illusion ments in addressing pain and function in chronic pain conditions. of releasing a painfully clenched phantom fist, or in the case of chronic regional pain syndrome might watch the wrist bending and straightening without pain. The level of movement by the Description of the condition patient is guided by the patient’s response and will range from no Chronic pain movement, to simple movement, to contextual movements such For the purpose of this review, we define chronic pain as any con- as manipulating objects. dition where pain has persisted beyond three months. A temporal Graded motor imagery delineation between acute and chronic pain is often made at three Graded motor imagery uses two additional priming steps prior to months clinically for non-cancer pain although this can shift de- mirror therapy (Moseley 2004). pending on the condition being considered (Merskey 1994). In an The first priming step is left-right recognition. Here, the patient International Association for the Study of Pain clinical update on looks at sequential images of the affected body part and decides if the prevalence of chronic pain, reference is made to chronic pain as a “left” or “right” sided body part is being shown (for upper or pain without apparent biological value that has persisted beyond lower limb applications) or if the body part is rotated to the left the normal tissue healing time (Harstall 2008). We acknowledge or right (for trunk/neck applications). that chronic pain is difficult to define, and will adopt the time cut The second priming step is imagined movements where the patient off point of pain greater than three months’ duration. imagines moving the affected body part to adopt certain positions. While this review will consider any chronic pain condition treated The patient then progresses to mirror therapy. with visual illusion therapies, the pain conditions to which they Virtual illusion have most frequently been reported as treatments for are phantom Virtual illusion uses virtual reality technology to create the expe- limb pain and chronic regional pain syndrome. rience that objects that do not exist in the real world exist in the Phantom limb pain is characterized by pain that is perceived in computer generated virtual environment. This therapy has been the location of a body part that has been removed, for example