ReviewNeurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics2017
Vagal Nerve Stimulation for Treatment-Resistant Depression.
Review in Neurotherapeutics : the journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 108 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
108 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effect of vagus nerve stimulation on metabolism: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Pooled it
- Neuroimaging studies of acupuncture for depressive disorder: a systematic review of published papers from 2014 to 2024.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in treating major depressive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Protocol of the randomized double blind sham controlled AddVNS study of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation mechanisms in depression.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Bilateral transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of insomnia in breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A pilot study on high amplitude low frequency-music impulse stimulation as an add-on treatment for depression.Brain and behavior · 2019Trial
- No modulation of pupil size and event-related pupil response by transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS).Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Activation of peripheral muscarinic receptors rescues depressive-like behaviors via gut-brain-axis, involving parasympathetic excitation.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2026Article
- Psychobiotic Effects of Postbiotics in Depression, Psychosis and Mania.Health promotion perspectives · 2026Review
- Dynamic cholinergic signaling differentially desynchronizes cortical microcircuits dependent on modulation rate and network connectivity.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- The brain and heart-axis in neurodegeneration and cardiovascular disease.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Review
- Neuro-Immune Crosstalk: Molecular Mechanisms, Biological Functions, Diseases, and Therapeutic Targets.MedComm · 2026Review
- Advances in the Clinical Application of Neurostimulation in Major Depression.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on patients with post-stroke insomnia: a randomized controlled trial protocol.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Multi-omics reveals associations between the microbiota-gut-brain axis and antidepressant effects of vagus nerve stimulation.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Implantable vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of disorders of consciousness with epilepsy: a retrospective propensity score-matched clinical study.Therapeutic advances in neurological disorders · 2026Article
- Integrative Neuroimmune Role of the Parasympathetic Nervous System, Vagus Nerve and Gut Microbiota in Stress Modulation: A Narrative Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Frontal Cortex Stimulation Modulates Attentional Circuits and Increases Anxiety-Potentiated Startle in Anxious Depression.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- Fluoroquinolone-Associated Disability: A Rodent Model Reveals Transient Neuropsychiatric and Persistent Gastrointestinal Effects of Low-Dose Ciprofloxacin.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Cardiac vagal motor neurons.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2025Review
48 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
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is prevalent. Although standards antidepressants are more effective than placebo, up to 35% of patients do not respond to 4 or more conventional treatments and are considered to have treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Considerable effort has been devoted to trying to find effective treatments for TRD. This review focuses on vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), approved for TRD in 2005 by the Food and Drugs Administration. Stimulation is carried by bipolar electrodes on the left cervical vagus nerve, which are attached to an implanted stimulator generator. The vagus bundle contains about 80% of afferent fibers terminating in the medulla, from which there are projections to many areas of brain, including the limbic forebrain. Various types of brain imaging studies reveal widespread functional effects in brain after either acute or chronic VNS. Although more randomized control trials of VNS need to be carried out before a definitive conclusion can be reached about its efficacy, the results of open studies, carried out over period of 1 to 2 years, show much more efficacy when compared with results from treatment as usual studies. There is an increase in clinical response to VNS between 3 and 12 months, which is quite different from that seen with standard antidepressant treatment of MDD. Preclinically, VNS affects many of the same brain areas, neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine) and signal transduction mechanisms (brain-derived neurotrophic factor-tropomyosin receptor kinase B) as those found with traditional antidepressants. Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which VNS benefits patients nonresponsive to conventional antidepressants is unclear, with further research needed to clarify this.
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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.