Transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation reduces sympathetic responses to stress in posttraumatic stress disorder: A double-blind, randomized, sham controlled trial
Gurel NZ, Wittbrodt MT, Jung H, Shandhi MMH, Driggers EG, Ladd SL, Huang M, Ko YA, Shallenberger L, Beckwith J, et al.
Neurobiology of Stress · 2020
Key finding
In an RCT of trauma-exposed individuals, tcVNS paired with traumatic-stress scripts dampened sympathetic arousal — lowering heart rate and improving peripheral vascular measures — versus sham.
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- Condition
- PTSD
- Stimulation
- tcVNS
- Evidence tier
- Randomised Controlled Trial
- Participants
- 25
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Cite this study
Gurel, N. Z., Wittbrodt, M. T., Jung, H., Shandhi, M. M. H., Driggers, E. G., Ladd, S. L., Huang, M., Ko, Y. A., Shallenberger, L., Beckwith, J., Nye, J. A., Pearce, B. D., Vaccarino, V., Shah, A. J., Inan, O. T., & Bremner, J. D. (2020). Transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation reduces sympathetic responses to stress in posttraumatic stress disorder: A double-blind, randomized, sham controlled trial. Neurobiology of Stress, 13, 100264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2020.100264
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