18 month follow up efficacy Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing on phantom limb pain in patients with amputation

Aim and Annually about 200-500 million amputations occurring around world because of disease, trauma and congenital defects which approximately 85% are in limbs. For those with amputation the phantom limb pain is a serious problem and causes the therapeutic challenges for who need therapy. Present study was conducted to identify 18 month follow up efficacy Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing on phantom limb pain in patients with amputation. present study is semi-experimental in nature. A total of 40 patients which suffering from phantom limb pain and were under pharmacological therapy for long time selected by available sampling (2012-2014) and were divided by random assignment into experimental and control groups. EMDR method applied for each patient individually at consultation room during 12 sessions per one hour for one month. In order to collect data, demographic and Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) questionnaire were used. data were gathered on phantom limb pain at pretreatment, posttreatment and 18 month follow up and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, repeated measures Mean phantom limb pain in before, after and 18 month follow up intervention was 7.15(±1.08), 3.40(±1.23) and 1.75(±1.01) respectively, which using with repeated measures showed significant difference (p<0.001). these results suggest that 18 month follow up Emdr therapy was successful in the treatment phantom limb pain in patients suffering from amputation. Therefore, its use as a therapeutic and alleviative method could be suggested for patients suffering from phantom limb pain.