Mirror Therapy in Patients with Somatoform Pain Disorders—A Pilot Study
Ruf SP, Hetterich L, Mazurak N, Rometsch C, Jurjut AM, Ott S, Herrmann-Werner A, Zipfel S, Stengel A (2023)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2023
Journal
Book Volume: 13
Article Number: 432
Journal Issue: 5
DOI: 10.3390/bs13050432
Abstract
Patients with chronic pain report reduced quality of life and high symptom burden while often responding insufficiently to treatment options. Mirror therapy has been proven to be effective in treating phantom limb pain and other conditions such as CRPS. This study was designed to investigate the efficacy of mirror therapy in patients with somatoform pain disorders on symptom severity and associated physiological parameters. Fifteen patients with persistent somatoform pain disorder (F45.40) or chronic pain disorder with somatic and psychological factors (F45.41) participated and received four weeks of tablet-based mirror therapy. Symptom severity was measured with established questionnaires, and their thermal detection, pain thresholds, and heart rate variability (HRV) were also assessed. After mirror therapy, pain intensity was reduced (z = −2.878, p = 0.004), and pain thresholds for cold stimuli were also diminished, i.e., the subjects became more sensitive to cold stimuli (z = −2.040, p = 0.041). In addition, a reduction of absolute power in the low-frequency band of HRV (t(13) = 2.536, p = 0.025) was detected. These findings indicate that this intervention may reduce pain intensity and modulate associated physiological parameters. As these results are limited by several factors, e.g., a small sample size and no control group, they should be validated in further studies investigating this novel intervention in these patients.
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Ruf, S.P., Hetterich, L., Mazurak, N., Rometsch, C., Jurjut, A.M., Ott, S.,... Stengel, A. (2023). Mirror Therapy in Patients with Somatoform Pain Disorders—A Pilot Study. Behavioral Sciences, 13(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13050432
MLA:
Ruf, Steffen Philipp, et al. "Mirror Therapy in Patients with Somatoform Pain Disorders—A Pilot Study." Behavioral Sciences 13.5 (2023).
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