Some Australian hospitals are employing uniquely different treatment that ‘tricks’ the mind into feeling better. People who suffer from the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, which typically occurs after an injury, were seen to benefit greatly from a unique use of mirrors, it was reported.
The way it was done is like this – patients who were undergoing great pain, were made to look into a mirror while doing certain exercises that involved their affected limbs as well as the other non-affected limbs. This helped to reprogram the brains as to the cause of the syndrome.
This therapy has also met with success when used in the case of those people who have had a limb amputated and feel the terrible pain of a ‘phantom’ limb that no longer exists but which the brain continues to get mistaken signals from.
Seeing the healthy limb in the mirror, the brains of the patients are tricked into believing that they are looking at their missing limb and that the discomfort is greatly reduced.
Doctors are finding that such out of the box treatment ideas are working well where mainstream treatments such as medications and nerve blocks do no work.
