2020 Volume 27 Issue 2 Pages 167-171
A 47-year-old man presented with severe phantom limb pain (PLP) seven days after amputation of the left brachium following an industrial accident. The initial pain was managed at the pain clinic using a continuous brachial plexus block and drug therapy. Consequently, his numerical rating scale (NRS) score for pain temporarily decreased from 5/10 to 2/10 during the nerve block treatment; however, pain intensified after the treatment ended. Subsequently, 15 mg of mirtazapine was administered once a day and increased to twice a day. Mirtazapine reduced the patient's NRS score to 3/10 for 8 h, which was not accomplished with other medicines. These observations indicate that mirtazapine has a unique pharmacological profile, unlike other antidepressants, and may be effective in improving PLP.
