Immediate response of phantom limb pain to calcitonin

Abstract
We applied calcitonin in a single-shot treatment to 10 patients with persistent or acute phantom limb pain. Nine patients responded immediately and noted a clear analgesic effect. In contrast a group of non-phantom pain patients of heterogeneous composition did not respond at all, except 1 patient with chronic stump pain. We believe that this could be an exciting new approach to the treatment of phantom limb pain.