The impact of a virtual reality environment on phantom limb pain V4
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The impact of simulated arm movement within a virtual reality environment on phantom limb pain in upper limb amputees. A pilot study.
IRAS ID
259344
Contact name
Steve Pettifer
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
Phantom limb pain occurs in the majority of people who lose a limb. It significantly affects quality of life and is hard to manage. Recent evidence suggests that mirror therapy and similar techniques that create a visual representation of the missing limb under the control of the patient may reduce phantom limb pain.
The investigators previously explored the use of a virtual reality environment for this purpose with people with upper limb loss but found that using it within the clinical setting limited its potential efficacy. Phantom limb pain is highly variable and assessing the effects of the activity during a hospital appointment when the phantom pain may not be present, or may not be problematic, made it difficult to judge the effects adequately.
This study will involve training unilateral upper-limb amputees in the clinic to use a portable, self-contained virtual reality system which they will then use at home, unsupervised, for two months. The aim is to discover whether phantom limb pain intensity is reduced by performing an activity in a virtual reality environment in which a visual representation of the missing limb is controlled by the patient. The participants will be directed to use the system every day, and additionally whenever their phantom limb pain is present and problematic.
The outcome will be measured by determining the change from baseline in pain intensity (measured on a scale of 0 to 10), the average number of pain episodes, and the average length of each episode after the two months. Participants in the investigators’ previous trials had identified these three measures as being most important to their quality of life.
The study has been funded by The University of Manchester and will recruit participants from the Specialised Ability Centre (Manchester).
REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1213
Date of REC Opinion
13 Sep 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion