Low Back Pain Rehabilitation Using Motor Imagery

Abstract

Background: The “neuromatrix “ theory of Melzack and the studies of Decety about the motor imagery (MI) open the way to new insights in the treatment of chronic pain rehabilitation. In the chronic pain genesis we have a perceptive dis-coherency and MI could remake a coherence of these afferences. Aim: The aim of the study, referring to Melzak theory and Decety studies, is to evaluate the effectiveness of MI in the rehabilitation of chronic non-specific low back pain. Design: case reports. Setting: Outpatient academic hospital. Population: Were included in the study three women with diagnosis of chronic non-specific low back pain. Materials and Methods: Pain was assessed using the Visual Analogue Scale and the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Disability was evaluated using the Roland and Morris Disability Questionnaire. Rehabilitation Program: the rehabilitation treatment was centered on the fragmentation-perceived segments of the body with a neurocognitive approach. Ten sessions were performed, two times per week, lasting one hour. Results: A reduction of pain and disability scores was observed at the end of rehabilitation treatment. Conclusion: The exercise based on MI is a valid modality in a cognitive-perceptive therapeutic concept for nonspecific chronic low back pain. The exercise is then considered an individually planned experience, who therapeutic value must emphasizes patient’s skills which will enter become a stable behavioral repertoire, so they must be memorized and automated. The evocation of the correct MI, would allow a greater capacity to acquire the proper somesthesic information, generating a greater coherence in the body self and remission, if not disappearance, of the chronic pain.