Phantom pain is most commonly experienced by residents with which condition?

• A. Arthritis
• B. Amputations
• C. Stroke
• D. Diabetes

Answer: (B)

Phantom pain is pain felt in a limb that is no longer there. It happens most often after an amputation because the brain’s map of the body continues to receive signals from nerves that used to go to the missing limb. Without sensory feedback from the limb, those nerve signals can be misinterpreted by the brain, creating painful sensations that feel like they come from the absent limb. So, residents who have undergone an amputation are the group most commonly experiencing phantom pain. Arthritis, stroke, and diabetes cause pain in existing parts of the body or neuropathy, but they don’t produce the classic phantom limb pain that occurs after removal of a limb.