Back
Mechanisms and state of the art of vagus nerve stimulation.
Journal article

Mechanisms and state of the art of vagus nerve stimulation.

  • 2002-12-07
Published in:
  • The journal of ECT. - 2002
Brain
Depressive Disorder, Major
Electric Stimulation Therapy
Electroencephalography
Epilepsies, Partial
Humans
Neural Pathways
Treatment Outcome
Vagus Nerve
English Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is an established treatment of medically refractory partial-onset seizures. Recent data from an open-label multicenter pilot study also suggest a potential clinical usefulness in the acute and maintenance treatment of drug-resistant depressive disorder. Despite the fact that surgery is needed to implant the stimulating device, the option of long-term use largely devoid of severe side effects would give this treatment modality a privileged place in the management of drug-resistant depression. However, definite therapeutic effects of clinical significance remain to be confirmed in large, placebo-controlled trials. Besides the potential clinical usefulness, VNS can be used as a research tool in epilepsy patients implanted for clinical reasons, allowing neurophysiologic investigations of the parasympathetic system and its interactions with other parts of the central nervous system.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/941
Statistics
Document views: 27 File downloads: