TACKLING PHANTOM LIMB PAIN (PLP)

Promoting EMDR to Organizations Dealing with PLP

Millions of people worldwide suffer from phantom limb pain, which is a debilitating and psychologically disturbing condition. Causes of limb loss range from wounds of war (landmines, infected bullets) to medical conditions (diabetes) to torture and accidents. Conventional treatment modalities for amputees are many, including various types of pain medication as well as non-medical treatments (e.g., acupuncture, massage, biofeedback, imagery, etc.).

EMDR’s Adaptive Information Processing Model (AIP) posits that PLP is the result of unprocessed memories of the event (together with its physical sensation) that necessitated the amputation. This is a different paradigm than those underlying conventional treatments. EMDR Therapy offers an effective PLP treatment, namely one that targets and reprocesses the traumatic memories associated with limb damage. Success (defined as complete or substantial reduction of experienced pain) was on average obtained with 80% of the cases after 2 to 9 sessions.

GIST-T seeks to promote and broker arrangements that connect victims of PLP (mainly through their special interest organizations) with licensed providers of EMDR therapy (mainly through their professional associations). While the evidence cited earlier is very promising, only six case studies have been published. More field research using randomly controlled trials would provide a stronger evidence base, and for that reason, GIST-T is also interested in identifying interested researchers to connect them with organizations representing victims. Finally, GIST-T is keen to bring together EMDR trainers with organizations (of nurses, doctors, physical therapists and others) that are potentially interested in building up their own capacity in the area of PLP reduction.