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A series of 2284 patients with amputations have been seen. In this group 404 have had detailed psychiatric study. Phantom sensation has been found to occur in practically all individuals who are studied carefully. Spontaneous complaints of pain were rather rare among the group. The patients complaining of phantom pain were individuals who had considerable psychopathology complicating their orthopedic picture. It is our impression that phantom pain is merely the interpretation of a phantom sensation by certain individuals who show psychopathology. Two cases are reported, one military and one civilian, which support this view. In both individuals the pain tended to come and go with psychopathological symptoms irrespective of what type of external treatment was carried on.
Ewalt et al. (1947) studied this question.