If you've worked with people who have had CRPS, then you may have come across situations where people tell you that they feel like their limb is not part of them, or at the most extreme, they are wanting to pursue amputation.

This is not strange or unusual -- and if you really think about it... it makes a lot of sense in the case of CRPS.

It is a really fantastic protective response to disown one's extremely painful body part and one key mechanism behind that is maladaptive neuroplasticity of our sensorimotor areas of the brain (which we can help!).

When you are thinking about treatment for someone with CRPS, it REALLY helps to understand and capture the extent of the body distortion, which is why the Bath CRPS Body Perception Disturbance Scale is so awesome!

This scale is super short AND it includes a drawing portion which could really be eye opening for you and your client.

It asks questions about limb ownership, the desire for amputation, the emotional feelings about one's limb, and more.

​Here is the article (Brink et al., 2021) that studied the validity of using this questionnaire in the CRPS population.

Here the Bath Perception Disturbance Scale (from the appendix of the Brink et al., 2021 article above) Download the BPDS

I have someone coming in with CRPS in a couple weeks who I plan to use it with.

I'll keep you posted on what we find and how we plan to use that information to guide treatment!

Until next time,

Brittany Kim 🔥 the CRPS PT