Clinical review
Reviewer: Jeremy Steinberg, GP, FRNZCGP
Date of review: July 2019
Comments: Graded motor imagery is an intervention for certain types of chronic pain syndromes like CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome) and phantom limb syndrome. There is some evidence to support its use in these conditions. Graded motor imagery has three stages:
- Left/right discrimination (where you train your brain to discriminate between left and right)
- Imagined movements (imagine moving your affected body part)
- Mirror imagery (moving your unaffected limb in front of a mirror to trick your brain that you are moving your affected limb)
This app has brief descriptions of all three stages but only assists you with the first stage which is unfortunate. There is further information on the website(external link) . Overall it is a helpful but incomplete app for one single body part. Additionally, it appears that many users encountered frequent crashes. On android you have 15 minutes to get an unconditional refund so you may want to test it on your phone within this timeframe to see if your phone is affected. You can view a demonstration of the app here(external link) and a comprehensive FAQ page here(external link).
Safety concerns: None.
New Zealand relevance: Relevant.
