Key result
Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation fails to alter cerebral vasomotor reactivity in chronic migraine or healthy volunteers.
Why the study?
Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation has been developed as a treatment for migraine, but its effects on cerebral vasomotor reactivity in chronic migraine patients during the intercritical phase are not well established.
nVNS lacks support for altering CVMR; leaves open other mechanisms in migraine and requires larger trials.
Different strategies of neurostimulation have been developed as treatment tools for migraine. Among them, vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) can be performed both invasively and non-invasively. Recently, “Gammacore” has been approved as a non-pharmacological and non-invasive tool for headache, and a recent study demonstrated its efficacy in 22% of patients with acute migraine attacks[ 1 ].
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Altavilla et al. (2015) studied Chronic migraine (n=40). Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation (Gammacore) vs. Baseline (pre-stimulation) was evaluated on Cerebral vasomotor reactivity (VMR) calculated by Breath holding index. Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation did not significantly alter cerebral vasomotor reactivity in patients with chronic migraine or healthy volunteers.
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