Trial reportPain medicine (Malden, Mass.)2012
Evoked pain analgesia in chronic pelvic pain patients using respiratory-gated auricular vagal afferent nerve stimulation.
Trial report in Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.), 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 5 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 96 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Auricular Acupuncture for the Acute Management of Pain in the Emergency Department
Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TaVNS) in Private Healthcare Center: An Open-Label, Non-Randomized Feasibility Study Targeting Anxiety, Chronic Pain and Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Long-term Effects of Transcutaneous Vagal Nerve Stimulation on Symptoms and Cardiovascular Autonomic Profile of Patients With Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
Pilot, Effect of Respiratory-Gated Auricular Vagal Afferent Nerve Stimulation (RAVANS) on Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome
LasaiOn: An Intervention Program to Reduce Emotional Distress
Who cites it
96 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- [Clinical efficacy of auricular vagus nerve stimulation in the treatment of chronic and acute pain : A systematic review].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2024Pooled it
- Cardiovascular effects of auricular stimulation -a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- The potential for autonomic neuromodulation to reduce perioperative complications and pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.British journal of anaesthesia · 2022Pooled it
- Auricular Vagus Neuromodulation-A Systematic Review on Quality of Evidence and Clinical Effects.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation paired with task-specific training for improving walking and balance in chronic stroke: a double-blind, randomised controlled feasibility trial.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Trial
- Home-based respiratory-gated transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for rheumatoid arthritis-a feasibility study.Clinical rheumatology · 2026Trial
- Safety and preliminary efficacy of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on chronic knee pain: A pilot trial.Osteoarthritis and cartilage open · 2025Trial
- Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation as a pain modulator in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized controlled clinical trial.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Trial
- A Randomized, Sham-Controlled Trial of Cranial Electrical Stimulation for Fibromyalgia Pain and Physical Function, Using Brain Imaging Biomarkers.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2024Trial
- The Effects of Combined Respiratory-Gated Auricular Vagal Afferent Nerve Stimulation and Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Pilot Study.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2022Trial
- Ameliorating effects and mechanisms of transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation on abdominal pain and constipation.JCI insight · 2021Trial
- Feasibility of Auricular Field Stimulation in Fibromyalgia: Evaluation by Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Randomized Trial.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Autonomic Testing in Women with Chronic Pelvic Pain.The Journal of urology · 2016Trial
- Non-invasive Access to the Vagus Nerve Central Projections via Electrical Stimulation of the External Ear: fMRI Evidence in Humans.Brain stimulationTrial
- Article
- A Review of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Disease: Comprehensive Theory and Evidence for Mechanisms of Action.Comprehensive physiology · 2026Review
- No significant modulation of pressure pain sensitivity and cardioception after transauricular vagal nerve stimulation.Pain reports · 2026Article
- Vagus nerve stimulation: An update of currently registered clinical trials on ClinicalTrials.gov.Surgical neurology international · 2026Review
36 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePrevious vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) studies have demonstrated antinociceptive effects, and recent noninvasive approaches, termed transcutaneous-vagus nerve stimulation (t-VNS), have utilized stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve in the ear. The dorsal medullary vagal system operates in tune with respiration, and we propose that supplying vagal afferent stimulation gated to the exhalation phase of respiration can optimize t-VNS.
designCounterbalanced, crossover study. PATIENTS: Patients with chronic pelvic pain (CPP) due to endometriosis in a specialty pain clinic. INTERVENTIONS/OUTCOMES: We evaluated evoked pain analgesia for respiratory-gated auricular vagal afferent nerve stimulation (RAVANS) compared with nonvagal auricular stimulation (NVAS). RAVANS and NVAS were evaluated in separate sessions spaced at least 1 week apart. Outcome measures included deep-tissue pain intensity, temporal summation of pain, and anxiety ratings, which were assessed at baseline, during active stimulation, immediately following stimulation, and 15 minutes after stimulus cessation.
resultsRAVANS demonstrated a trend for reduced evoked pain intensity and temporal summation of mechanical pain, and significantly reduced anxiety in N = 15 CPP patients, compared with NVAS, with moderate to large effect sizes (η(2) > 0.2).
conclusionChronic pain disorders such as CPP are in great need of effective, nonpharmacological options for treatment. RAVANS produced promising antinociceptive effects for quantitative sensory testing (QST) outcomes reflective of the noted hyperalgesia and central sensitization in this patient population. Future studies should evaluate longer-term application of RAVANS to examine its effects on both QST outcomes and clinical pain.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.