SynthesisThe international journal of neuropsychopharmacology2024
Neural, Anti-Inflammatory, and Clinical Effects of Transauricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06193317 (Effects of taVNS on Fibromyalgia Pain), which is not on this map. Cited by 16 papers.
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.
Effects of taVNS on Fibromyalgia Pain
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurofilament light chain dynamics following ischemic stroke and their modulation by transauricular vagus nerve stimulation.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- Protocol of the randomized double blind sham controlled AddVNS study of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation mechanisms in depression.Scientific reports · 2026Trial
- The effects of non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation on resting-state delta oscillation: a randomized, double-blinded, sham-control trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Efficacy and EEG-ECG mechanisms of taVNS combined with TEAS for negative symptoms of schizophrenia: a protocol for a 2 × 2 factorial randomized controlled trial.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- tVNS Mitigates Neuroinflammation and Nociception in a Rodent LPS Endotoxemia Model.Clinical and translational science · 2026Article
- Navigating the Ethereal Tightrope: The Nanogenerator Manipulates Neurons for Immune Equilibrium.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Peripartum Depression as a Heart-Brain-Endocrine-Immune Syndrome: Neuroendocrine, Cardiovascular, and Inflammatory Pathways Underlying Maternal Vulnerability.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation: mechanisms, applications, and research progress.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Pharmacological interventions targeting the gut-brain axis in neurological disorders: mechanisms and translational applications.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Heart-Brain Axis Dysregulation in Depression: Mechanisms and Implications for Neuromodulation.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
- Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation for major depressive disorder: current evidence and future research directions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Article
- Cholinergic reflex control of inflammation: mechanistic and translational advances in transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation across rheumatic, metabolic, and postoperative disorders.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation effects on chronic pain: systematic review and meta-analysis.Pain reports · 2024Review
- Age as an Effect Modifier of the Effects of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) on Heart Rate Variability in Healthy Subjects.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Long-Term Immunomodulatory Impact of VNS on Peripheral Cytokine Profiles and Its Relationship with Clinical Response in Difficult-to-Treat Depression (DTD).International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe discovery of effective treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) may help target different brain pathways. Invasive vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an effective neuromodulation technique for the treatment of MDD; however, the effectiveness of the noninvasive technique, transauricular VNS (taVNS), remains unknown. Moreover, a mechanistic understanding of the neural effects behind its biological and therapeutic effects is lacking. This review aimed to evaluate the clinical evidence and the neural and anti-inflammatory effects of taVNS in MDD.
methodsTwo searches were conducted using a systematic search strategy reviewed the clinical efficacy and neural connectivity of taVNS in MDD in humans and evaluated the changes in inflammatory markers after taVNS in humans or animal models of depression. A risk of bias assessment was performed in all human studies.
resultsOnly 5 studies evaluated the effects of taVNS in patients with depression. Although the studies demonstrated the efficacy of taVNS in treating depression, they used heterogeneous methodologies and limited data, thus preventing the conduct of pooled quantitative analyses. Pooled analysis could not be performed for studies that investigated the modulation of connectivity between brain areas; of the 6 publications, 5 were based on the same experiment. The animal studies that analyzed the presence of inflammatory markers showed a reduction in the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines or receptor expression.
conclusionsData on the clinical efficacy of taVNS in the treatment of MDD are limited. Although these studies showed positive results, no conclusions can be drawn regarding this topic considering the heterogeneity of these studies, as in the case of functional connectivity studies. Based on animal studies, the application of taVNS causes a decrease in the level of inflammatory factors in different parts of the brain, which also regulate the immune system. Therefore, further studies are needed to understand the effects of taVNS in patients with MDD.
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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.