The AudioNotch Tinnitus Treatment Blog
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Tinnitus and Vagus Nerve
Here’s an overview of our posts on vagal nerve stimulation for tinnitus as a therapy:
Vagal Nerve Therapy Trial Recruiting Patients
An American clinical trial is being launched for Vagal Nerve Therapy for tinnitus. This is pretty exciting news (although the research thus far is limited). A summary below:
The new study uses a technique known as vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) that takes advantage of the brain’s ability to reconfigure itself (neuroplasticity). During the therapy, patients wear headphones and hear a series of single frequency tones, paired with stimulation to the vagus nerve, a large nerve that runs from the head and neck to the abdomen. When stimulated, the vagus nerve releases acetylcholine, norepinephrine, and other chemicals that encourage neuroplasticity.
In an earlier … Continue Reading
Promising Early Results for Vagal Nerve Therapy for Tinnitus
Encouraging results have been reported in a small trial of vagal nerve therapy for tinnitus:
UT Dallas researchers have demonstrated that treating tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, using vagus nerve stimulation-tone therapy is safe and brought significant improvement to some of the participants in a small clinical trial.
Drs. Sven Vanneste and Michael Kilgard of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences used a new method pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with auditory tones to alleviate the symptoms of chronic tinnitus. Their results were published on Nov. 20 in the journal Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface.
VNS is an FDA-approved method for … Continue Reading
Company Researching Vagal Nerve Therapy for Tinnitus Acquires
Some individuals are fairly excited about the new research being done on Vagal Nerve Therapy. My current understanding is that this involves playing paired auditory tones with vagal nerve stimulation, in an effort to reverse the neuroplastic changes that occur from tinnitus. This firm has released a press release indicating that they are continuing to acquire successful funding to acquire clinical trials.
The Serenity® System is a neurostimulation based system with a small implanted battery and wires that internally connect to the vagus nerve in the neck. As part of the therapy, the patient … Continue Reading