An app for people with complex regional pain syndrome or phantom limb syndrome. Recognise Hand app is best used under the guidance of a health professional.
What does the app do?
Recognise Hand app is for people with complex regional pain syndrome or phantom limb syndrome. The app helps the user improve on discrimination between left and right of a painful body part. This is the first stage of graded motor imagery, a form of brain training that can reduce pain in certain types of conditions. Read more about graded motor imagery. For a complete app description, go to the App Store or for a more detailed review, see Reviews.
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CONS |
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✔ Assists in the first phase of graded motor imagery (left/right discrimination)
✔ Uses gamification principles to make the treatment fun
✔ Three game types: left right discrimination, memory game, and speed match with adjustable settings.
✔ You can take photos of your own body parts to use for testing.
✔ Tracks and graphs your results
✔ Export results into a CSV formation (best opened in spreadsheet software)
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✘ Not a complete graded motor imagery course. It has brief descriptions of all three stages of the therapy but only assists with the first stage (left/right discrimination)
✘ It doesn’t tell you which cards you got wrong.
✘ Could do with more comprehensive information on how to use the app.
✘ Need to pay for each body part and they are sold separately. Costs $11.99 with no free version.
✘ Although I didn’t have any bugs during my testing, many users have reported frequent crashes across all the different “recognise” apps. Many reviewers stated that the developer was unresponsive, and it was also apparent that they hadn’t replied to any of the negative reviews.
✘ Not referenced
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Review details
Date of review: July 2019
Platform reviewed: Apple
Version: 1.0.6
Download size: 77.59 MB
Updated on: 16/5/2019
Learn more
Graded motor imagery
References
- Wajon A. Recognise Hands app for graded motor imagery training in chronic pain. Journal of Physiotherapy, 2014
- Moseley GL. Is successful rehabilitation of complex regional pain syndrome due to sustained attention to the affected limb? A randomised clinical trial. Pain. 2005 Mar;114(1-2):54-61.
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In-depth reviews of the Recognise Hand app.
Clinical review
Reviewer: Jeremy Steinberg, GP, RNZCGP
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 . 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 and a comprehensive FAQ page here.
Safety concerns: None.
New Zealand relevance: Relevant.
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