Introduction: Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that can significantly affect a person in all areas of human functioning, preventing their occupational performance and reducing their quality of life. The occupational therapist’s role in pain management is to increase their client’s engagement in meaningful and enjoyable occupations by implementing various pain management interventions. One of the possible interventions is graded motor imagery. Purpose: The purpose was to review the literature on graded motor imagery and to determine how useful it is as an occupational therapy intervention in the management of upper limb pain and what evidence there is of its effectiveness. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed following the guidelines of the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination. Studies were searched based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria in the databases CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, OTseeker and in the COBISS library information system using a combination of English and Slovenian keywords and Boolean operators AND and OR. Studies were also retrieved by manual reference checking. They were ranked according to the level of evidence and given a relevance score, a quality score according to Joanna Briggs Institute criteria, and a risk of bias score. Results: Eleven studies were included in the final analysis. Studies belonged to different levels of evidence according to the criteria of the American Occupational Therapists Association and had different levels of methodological quality. Graded motor imagery is used as an intervention in occupational therapy management of upper limb pain in clients with chronic regional pain syndrome, chronic pain, upper limb injuries, phantom limb pain, and within multidisciplinary rehabilitation teams. Evidence of its effectiveness varied depending on the type of study. Discussion and conclusion: The literature review identified a lack of research on the researched topic, reflecting the low number of available studies and their methodological limitations. A literature review could inform occupational therapists and other health professionals about graded motor imagery and encourage them to apply it in their work. There is a need for further research of the appropriate methodological quality of the topic, especially in the field of occupational therapy.
|
