Des miroirs pour traiter la douleur, pourquoi ?

Mirror therapy is more and more often suggested for the treatment of particular neuropathic pain syndromes, in complement to rehabilitation. Its mechanism of action is poorly elucidated and several non-exclusive hypotheses have been suggested: improvement of sensorimotor congruence, pain modulation by vision, mirror neurons activation, reduction of kinesiophobia, attentional effects, changes in cortical excitability… Even if case reports have given encouraging results, the few controlled studies have given more mixed results. More studies are necessary to better test this treatment, assess its modes of action and test the hypothesis suggesting that particular patients subgroups might be more susceptible to this treatment than others. Despite these questions, a few practical recommendations can be done.