Use of Mirror Therapy to Treat Psychogenic Tremors

Abstract

Psychogenic tremors present with various clinical demonstrations in neurological practice. In mirror therapy, the patient concentrates on the image of the normal limb and learns to manage pain and movement. This study aimed to use mirror therapyfor the treatment of psychogenic tremors. A 19-year-old female presented in the hospital with complaints of incompetence inmanual skills, sluggish movements, reduction in muscle strength, weakness of fine motor activities, and presence of involuntarymovements, such as tremors in the right upper extremity, which appeared approximately 2 years ago but worsened in the last 1year. Both before and after treatment, we used a digital goniometer to assess the range of motion of the forearm and wrist, digitalhand-held dynamometer to evaluate flexor and extensor muscles of the hand and wrist, hand grip dynamometer and pinchmeterto evaluate muscle strength, Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH)questionnaire to assess the functional capacityof the upper extremity, Jebsen hand function test to evaluate the functionality of the hand, Grooved Pegboard test to evaluatemanipulative skills, and functional independence measure (WeeFIM) to evaluate the quality of life. There was an improvement inall the parameters when compared before and after treatment. The results of this study showed that mirror therapy was a veryuseful approach in the treatment of psychogenic tremors, which significantly disrupt exercise compliance and are characterizedby severe psychogenic tremors that reduce the quality of life.