Assessing self-perception in patients with chronic low back pain: development of a back-specific body-perception questionnaire.

Background: There is considerable interest in the role that disturbance of body-perception may play in long standing pain problems such as chronic low back pain (CLBP), both as a contributor to the clinical condition and as a potential target for treatment. In some chronic pain conditions body-perception has been investigated using self-report questionnaires. There is currently no questionnaire for assessing body-perception in people with CLBP.

Illusory touch temporarily improves sensation in areas of chronic numbness: a brief communication.

Background: Creating the visual illusion of touch can improve tactile perception in healthy subjects.

Objective: We were interested in seeing if creating the illusion of touch in an insensate area could improve sensation in that area.

Methods: Fourteen people with chronic numbness participated in a randomized crossover experiment.