Vagus nerve stimulation for treatment-resistant mood disorders: a long-term naturalistic study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Limited therapeutic options are available for patients with treatment-refractory major depression who do not respond to routinely available therapies. Vagus nerve stimulation showed adjunctive antidepressant effect in chronic treatment resistant depression, even though available studies rarely exceed 2-year follow up. We report a naturalistic 5-year follow up of five patients who received VNS implant for resistant depression (3 patients with major depressive disorder and 2 with bipolar disorder).

METHODS:

Response was defined as a reduction of the 17-item HDRS total score ≥50% with respect to baseline, remission as a score ≤7.

RESULTS:

Response and remission rates were both 40% (2/5) after 1 year, and 60% (3/5) at 5 years. Two patients withdrew from the study because of side effects or inefficacy of stimulation.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our case series showed that long-term VNS may be effective in reducing severity of depression in a small but significant minority of patients, although two patients had stimulation terminated because of adverse effects and/or refusal to continue the study.

• Authors: Umberto Albert, Giuseppe Maina, Andrea Aguglia, Alberto Vitalucci, Filippo Bogetto, Chiara Fronda, Alessandro Ducati, Michele Lanotte
• Journal: BMC psychiatry (BMC Psychiatry) Vol. 15 Pg. 64 (Mar 31 2015) ISSN: 1471-244X [Electronic] England
• PMID: 25884606 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Observational Study)

Topics

• Aged
• Bipolar Disorder (therapy)
• Depressive Disorder, Major (therapy)
• Depressive Disorder, Treatment-Resistant (therapy)
• Electrodes, Implanted
• Female
• Humans
• Long-Term Care
• Longitudinal Studies
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Treatment Outcome
• Vagus Nerve Stimulation (methods)