Effects of mirror therapy in the treatment of patients with various pain syndromes - literature review

Introduction. Mirror therapy was developed by Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran for the treatment of phantom pain after limb amputation. Mirror therapy is a neurorehabilitation technique that helps to relearn the use of affected limbs on many neurological and psychological levels. Material and Methods. A literature review was conducted using the following databases: KOBSON, Google Scholar, PubMed and MEDLINE. Results. A systematic literature review has shown that there is insufficient evidence of the effectiveness of this treatment in relieving and suppressing phantom limb pain. The results indicate the effectiveness of mirror therapy in relieving pain in people after a stroke. The small amount of evidence and lack of methodology reports have a major impact on the quality of this evidence. After mirror therapy, a significant reduction in pain at rest and during active movement was reported. Conclusion. Further research on mirror therapy is needed to help relieve pain. Evidence of the effectiveness of mirror therapy on pain has not been sufficiently investigated so far.