Health✓ Verified

Vagus Nerve Stimulation Improves Severe Depression by 70%, Major US Trial Finds

Reported byScienceAlert ↗·Sourced by Goodlede

What backs it

The RECOVER trial of 493 US patients found that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy produced meaningful improvement in 69% of treatment-resistant depression patients at 12 months, with more than 80% maintaining or improving benefits at 24 months; participants had averaged 13 failed prior treatments and spent more than half their lives sick with depression.

Worth noting

VNS requires surgical implantation; it works for severe treatment-resistant cases and is not a first-line treatment.

Systemic / trendWell established✓ Verified

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