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Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Major Depressive Disorder : An Updated Systematic Review
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Trevizol, Alisson Paulino Cordeiro, Quirino |
| Copyright Year | 2016 |
| Abstract | Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent of the psychiatric illnesses, with a refractoriness rate up to 30%. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) is a novel neu-romodulation strategy proposed for MDD based on the bottom-up mechanism, which involves the stimulation of the vagus nerve leading to further modulation of impaired brain areas. If effective, tVNS has the potential to increase response and remission rates in patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders. Objective: We hereby present a systematic review on taVNS for MDD. Methods: A systematic review was conducted, according to the recommendations of the Cochrane group and to the PRISMA guidelines. Two authors performed independent systematic reviews and data extraction, and any discrepancy was resolved by consensus. Systematic review was performed using MEDLINE and EMBASE from the first article available until April 22, 2016. Literature Review: We included four studies: one of them was a non-randomized single-blinded controlled trial, one non-randomized controlled study, one open-label study and one sham-controlled randomized double-blinded trial. Most studies had small sample sizes (total of 258, from 12 to 160). Studies reported thrilling posi-tive results for treating MDD with some differences regarding stimulation protocols. taVNS was reported to be safe, with no severe adverse effects reported. Conclusions: The possibility of using the auricular branch of the vagus nerve enables easier access for pa-tients with psychiatric disorders. However, those results must be analyzed under the strict limitations the study designs have. Most of the trials here described have small sample sizes and only one was a randomized, place-bo-controlled clinical trial. The stimulation parameters varied greatly among the studies and it is conceivable that there may be more ideal stimulation parameters that might result in improved efficacy and/or side effects. Therefore, more rigorous sham-controlled trials are necessary in order to better understand the huge potential involved with this technique. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://www.jscimedcentral.com/Anxiety/anxiety-1-1008.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
