This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY).
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Linguo-semantic descriptors of painful sensations as a mirror therapy effectiveness criterion in trauma-related amputation
1 Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russia
2 Hospital for War Veterans No. 3 of the Moscow City Department of Health, Moscow, Russia
3 Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia
Correspondence should be addressed: Ekaterina A. Petrash
Ostrovityanova, 1, Moscow, 117997, Russia; ur.liam@hsartep
Author contribution: equivalent.
Compliance with ethical standards: the study approved by the Ethics Committee of the Pirogov University (protocol No. 249 dated 17 March 2025) was compliant with the requirements of the Fundamentals of Legislation "On the Protection of Citizens' Health”; all subjects submitted the informed consent for assessment.
Assessment of phantom pain linguosemantic descriptors in patients with traumatic amputation during the use of mirror visual feedback is conditioned by the need to find criteria for the psychological phantom pain adjustment effectiveness. The study aimed to assess the dynamic changes in linguosemantic pain descriptors in patients with traumatic amputation showing manifestations of phantom pain syndrome as a criterion for evaluating the effectiveness of mirror visual feedback. The total sample size was 87 males post traumatic amputation of one lower limb (age 23–55 years). The research methods were as follows: Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), original form for registering linguosemantic descriptors of phantom painful sensations, Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for phantom pain. The detected dynamic changes in linguosemantic descriptors of phantom painful sensations in patients with traumatic amputation of the limb showing manifestations of phantom pain syndrome during treatment involving the use of mirror visual feedback makes it possible to consider the following as effectiveness criteria: an increase in the number of pain descriptors represented mainly by concrete and tangible nouns (makes it possible to reduce phantom pain severity rated using a 10-point scale), as well as the increase in the number of descriptors that characterize non-painful unpleasant sensations at the linguosemantic level.
Keywords: mirror visual feedback, manifestations of phantom pain syndrome, descriptors of phantom pain, linguistic and semantic descriptors