Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffAlthough there's no medical test to diagnose phantom pain, doctors can identify the condition by collecting information about your symptoms and the circumstances (such as trauma or surgery) that occurred before the pain started.
Describing your pain precisely can help your doctor pinpoint your problem. Even though it's common to have phantom pain and stump pain at the same time, treatments for these two problems may differ.
- Pain: Hope through research. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/chronic_pain/detail_chronic_pain.htm. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Dillingham TR, et al. Upper limb amputations. In: Frontera WR, et al. Essentials of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:595.
- Mosaku KS, et al. Psychological reactions to amputation in a sample of Nigerian amputees. General Hospital Psychiatry. 2009;31:20.
- Ramachandra VS, et al. The use of visual feedback, in particular mirror visual feedback, in restoring brain function. Brain. 2009;132:1693.
- Radbruch L. Pain in cancer survivors. In: Walsh D, et al. Palliative Medicine. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2008. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/155581031-4/0/2038/259.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05674-8..50258-9--chapter1. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Jeffries GE. Post-amputation pain. Amputation Coalition of America. http://www.amputee-coalition.org/inmotion/mar_apr_98/pain_mgt/page1.html. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Chan BL, et al. Mirror therapy for phantom limb pain. New England Journal of Medicine. 2007;357:2206.
- McNutt S. New paths in phantom limb pain treatment. Amputation Coalition of America. http://www.amputee-coalition.org/inmotion/mar_apr_07/phantom_treatment.html. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Bajwa ZH, et al. Cancer pain syndromes. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Acupuncture for pain. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/acupuncture-for-pain.htm. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Phantom pain: An update. Amuptee Coaltion. http://www.amputee-coalition.org/communicator/vol3no1pg3.html. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Fast facts on amputation/phantom limb pain. American Pain Foundation. http://www.painfoundation.org/learn/library/pain-conditions/amputation/fast-facts-amputation.html. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Giustozzi AA. Chronic pain management. In: Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2009. St. Louis, Mo: Mosby; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/155122192-13/876983605/1701/135.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-04134-8..50006-9--cesec586_2770. Accessed Aug. 21, 2009.
- Martin DP (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Aug. 26, 2009.
