That was Vilayanur S. Ramachandran who invented mirror box to help alleviate phantom limb pain, in which patients feel they still have a limb after having it amputated. Albeit research and researchers have their ongoing debate, there are people who feel benefited to alleviate the phantom pain with help of mirror therapy.
This story is of Stephen Sumner who lost his left leg that had been amputated six inches above the knee and his phantom pain. Stephen used the mirror for two weeks, then stopped because the pain had not returned. About a year and a half later, he felt the pain again, and this time he stayed the course for the full five weeks. He hasn’t had phantom pain for over four years. “It’s gone now,” he says. “It’s gone because I treated myself with a mirror.”
This man have done many magnificent jobs past the event and now he is on a mission to alleviate pain of people suffering from Phantom pain using mirrors. He meets people with amputation, learns about their story and shares his too. With people who have phantom pain he gives a mirror, teaches them the use of it and thereby alleviates their pain. He is "Mirror Man"; a mirror therapist who first targetted Cambodia, place where landmines and unexploded ordnance killed around 20,000 people and injured 44,000 more between 1979 and 2011.
Stephen thoughts about phantom pain is that “It’s not in the head, it’s in the limb.” He have travelled around Asia with mirrors on the back of his bicycle to help amputees who were suffering from phantom pain but now he is exhausted. He says "Mirrors are supereffective".
Stephen offers a simplified explanation of the brain reorganisation theory. Pointing to his head, he says, “You have a commander here that controls the body. The commander has a map of the whole body. When the map doesn’t match the body, the commander panics and you feel pain. This mirror is to trick the commander into thinking the leg still exists, so he stops panicking and the pain goes away.”
He is dedicated towards helping people to overcome from phantom pain using mirrors, read his full story by clicking the link below.
Specific Implications for Physiotherapists -
Mirror therapy is a part of Graded Motor Imagery which consist of three steps.
1st. Left Right Discrimination
2nd. Explicit Motor Imagery
3rd. Mirror Therapy
In order to get effective results we need to know the technique properly. Only use of mirror wouldn't give effective results.
See these videos from David Butler
Mirror Box Therapy with David Butler
GaitTrack Smartphone App, a Medical Device for Automatic Gait Assessment