MIRAGE Study

MIRAGE studied the effectiveness of viewing visual illusions that alter the size and shape of the painful hand to provide pain relief for people with CRPS.  Virtual reality was used by the MIRAGE system to create an image of how the patient desired their affected hand to look like.

The aims of the study were:

• to determine whether repeated exposure to the illusion was effective in sustaining pain relief and reducing body perception disturbance
• to determine whether visually manipulating the affected hand improved movement performance and reduced the fear of movement

Results of the study have been analysed and it is hoped that a research paper will be published in due course.