ReviewJournal of pain research2018
Spotlight on cervical vagus nerve stimulation for the treatment of primary headache disorders: a review.
Review in Journal of pain research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 9 papers.
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.
Safety and Efficacy of Non-invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation in the Treatment of Headache in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
Effects of Vagal Nerve Stimulation on Pain Frequency and Intensity in Chronic Migraine
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Vagus nerve stimulation for chronic pain management: Mechanisms and clinical advances.Journal of biological methods · 2025Review
- Non-Invasive Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia Symptoms: A Study Protocol.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Melatonin Moderates the Triangle of Chronic Pain, Sleep Architecture and Immunometabolic Traffic.Biomedicines · 2021Review
- Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation: From Concept to Application.Neuroscience bulletin · 2021Review
- Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Involvement in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Interactions with Gut Microbiota.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway in chronic kidney disease-review and vagus nerve stimulation clinical pilot study.Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association · 2020Review
- Mechanism of Peripheral Nerve Stimulation in Chronic Pain.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2020Review
- Non-invasive Low-level Tragus Stimulation in Cardiovascular Diseases.Arrhythmia & electrophysiology review · 2020Review
- Sex Differences in Vagus Nerve Stimulation Effects on Rat Cardiovascular and Immune Systems.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesCervical noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation (nVNS) emerged as an adjunctive neuromodulation approach for primary headache disorders with limited responsiveness to pharmacologic and behavioral treatment. This narrative review evaluates the safety and efficacy of invasive and noninvasive peripheral nerve stimulation of the cervical branch of the vagal nerve (afferent properties) for primary headache disorders (episodic/chronic migraine [EM/CM] and cluster headache [ECH/CCH]) and provides a brief summary of the preclinical data on the possible mechanism of action of cervical vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and trigemino-nociceptive head pain transmission. MATERIALS AND
methodsA systematic search of published data was performed in PubMed for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and prospective cohort clinical studies assessing the efficacy/safety and cost-effectiveness of cervical VNS in primary headache disorders and related preclinical studies.
resultsThree RCTs were identified for ECH/CCH (ACT-1, ACT-2 and PREVA), one RCT for migraine (EVENT) and several prospective cohort studies and retrospective analyses for both headache disorders. In ACT-1, a significantly higher response rate, a higher pain-free rate and a decrease in mean attack duration were found in nVNS-treated ECH/CCH patients compared to sham stimulation. ACT-2 confirmed these findings (e.g., significantly higher pain-free attacks, pain severity decline and increased responder-rate [defined as ≥50% reduction]). The PREVA study demonstrated the superiority of adjunctive nVNS to standard care alone and observed a significantly higher attack reduction (
conclusionCervical nVNS represents a novel, safe and efficient adjunctive treatment option for primary headache disorders. In particular, preliminary observations suggest enhanced nVNS responsiveness in favor of episodic subtypes (EM and ECH). However, preclinical studies are urgently warranted to dissect the mechanism of action.
Indexed as
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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.