ArticleBrain, behavior, & immunity - health2020
Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation blocks stress-induced activation of Interleukin-6 and interferon-γ in posttraumatic stress disorder: A double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial.
Article in Brain, behavior, & immunity - health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation may improve cognitive deficits in neuropsychiatric diseases-a systematic review.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in World Trade Center Responders: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Trial
- Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation modulates stress-induced plasma ghrelin levels: A double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial.Journal of affective disorders · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- A pilot study of brain correlates of long-term treatment with transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation in posttraumatic stress disorder.Journal of affective disorders reports · 2026Article
- A Review of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Disease: Comprehensive Theory and Evidence for Mechanisms of Action.Comprehensive physiology · 2026Review
- Manual Vagal Maneuver Effects on Cardiac Coherence, HRV, and Cognitive Performance in Young Healthy Women: A Pilot Study.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2026Article
- Without getting under your skin: non-invasive stimulation activates the vagus nerve.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in breast cancer: a neuroimmune model to improve quality of life.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation for the treatment of trauma- and stressor-related disorders: systematic review of randomised controlled studies.BJPsych open · 2025Review
- Effects of Stress, Vagal Nerve Stimulation and Disease Activity on Circulating Cytokines, Quantified by an Ultrasensitive Technique, in Ulcerative Colitis: A Pilot Study.JGH open : an open access journal of gastroenterology and hepatology · 2025Article
- Accrued reductions in heart rate following transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation in adults with posttraumatic stress disorder.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation is associated with the reduction in persistent post-concussion symptoms: an observational study.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Acute and long-term effects of COVID-19 on brain and mental health: A narrative review.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Review
- Vagus nerve stimulation: Novel concept for the treatment of glioblastoma and solid cancers by cytokine (interleukin-6) reduction, attenuating the SASP, enhancing tumor immunity.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2024Review
- Non-invasive ventral cervical magnetoneurography as a proxy of in vivo lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Innate and adaptive immune system consequences of post-traumatic stress disorder.Autonomic neuroscience : basic & clinical · 2024Review
- Association of systemic inflammation with posttraumatic stress disorder after a myocardial infarction.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Psychological and biological mechanisms linking trauma with cardiovascular disease risk.Translational psychiatry · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
26 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a highly disabling condition associated with alterations in multiple neurobiological systems, including increases in inflammatory function. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) decreases inflammation, however few studies have examined the effects of non-invasive VNS on physiology in human subjects, and no studies in patients with PTSD. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of transcutaneous cervical VNS (tcVNS) on inflammatory responses to stress. Thirty subjects with a history of exposure to traumatic stress with (N = 10) and without (N = 20) PTSD underwent exposure to stressful tasks immediately followed by active or sham tcVNS and measurement of multiple biomarkers of inflammation (interleukin-(IL)-6, IL-2, IL-1β, Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFα) and Interferon gamma (IFNγ) over multiple time points. Stressful tasks included exposure to personalized scripts of traumatic events on day 1, and public speech and mental arithmetic (Mental Stress) tasks on days 2 and 3. Traumatic scripts were associated with a pattern of subjective anger measured with Visual Analogue Scales and increased IL-6 and IFNγ in PTSD patients that was blocked by tcVNS (p < .05). Traumatic stress had minimal effects on these biomarkers in non-PTSD subjects and there was no difference between tcVNS or sham. No significant differences were seen between groups in IL-2, IL-1β, or TNFα. These results demonstrate that tcVNS blocks behavioral and inflammatory responses to stress reminders in PTSD.
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.