Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Private Healthcare Center

February 20, 2018 updated by: Pascal J.D. Grolaux, DO, Kinesis Health Associates

Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TaVNS) in Private Healthcare Center: An Open-Label, Non-Randomized Feasibility Study Targeting Anxiety, Chronic Pain and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

This non-randomized, open-label study has the objective to study the effects and feasibility of Transauricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (TaVNS) for patients suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Chronic Pain (CP) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in a private healthcare centre.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The effects of TaVNS on GAD, CP and IBS. Participants were investigated during a 4-week period and a 2-month follow-up. Groups (GAD, CP, IBS) were assessed using questionnaires: Anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder GAD-7); CP (Brief Pain Inventory Short Form Questionnaire) and IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome Severity Scoring System). TaVNS was performed using a standard transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) device and ear clip electrodes plugged into the concha area of the left ear. All participants received a bi-weekly 30 minutes stimulation (8 sessions). We defined three different TaVNS parameters for each group in hertz (Hz) and microsecond (µs), (GAD: 20Hz-80µs), (CP: 5Hz-200 µs), (IBS: 3Hz-250µs).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

11

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Nova Scotia
      • Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, B2Y 1C9
        • Kinesis Health Associates

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 63 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age range 20-65 years old
  2. Patient suffering from either Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Chronic Pain scoring and Irritable Bowel Syndrome from moderate
  3. Patients meet the scoring standard questionnaires: mild to severe
  4. Patient can understand and answer the questions
  5. Patient exhibits symptoms for at least six months

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Reading difficulties
  2. Diagnosed left ear lesion
  3. Measured blood pressure under 100/60 with or without anti-high blood pressure medicine
  4. Active implant such as cochlear implant
  5. Wounds and skin disease in the left ear
  6. Recent head trauma or concussion
  7. Cardiac pacemaker
  8. Severe alcoholism
  9. Left cervical vagotomy
  10. Cholinergic or B blocking medicine
  11. Recreative drugs
  12. Diagnosed concomitant psychiatric comorbidity
  13. Diagnosed concomitant personal disorders
  14. Diagnosed pregnancy
  15. Diagnosed concomitant severe neurological or medical diseases such as neoplasms in activity, neurodegenerative diseases and chronic infectious diseases uncompensated

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation
TaVNS 8 sessions, 30 min, 4 weeks GAD: 20 Hertz (Hz) - 80 microseconds (µs) CP: 5Hz-200µs IBS: 3Hz-250µs
Device: Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation

TaVNS will be applied by the TENS 7000 device. The stimulation was set according the group of treatment: (GAD: 20Hz-80µs), (CP: 5Hz-200 µs), (IBS: 3Hz-250µs).

The current intensity was individually established under the pain threshold .The stimulus generates an continous asymmetric biphasic waveform. Ear clip electrodes were plugged in the concha area of the left ear. The stimulation will last 30 min per session (total=8)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change from baseline generalized anxiety disorder severity
Time Frame: baseline, 4-week and 2-month follow-up
To assess the response effect of the TaVNS on the severity of anxiety disorders measured by the 21 items self-administered Generalized Anxiety Disorder GAD-7 questionnaire, where scoring scores of 5, 10 and 15 represent cut-off points for mild, moderate and severe anxiety. A response will be considered as a reduced cut-off point from baseline.
baseline, 4-week and 2-month follow-up
Change from baseline pain severity and pain interference
Time Frame: baseline, 4-week and 2-month follow-up
To assess the response effect of the TaVNS on the severity of pain and the impact of this pain on daily functioning (Interference) measured by the 9 items self-administered Brief Pain Inventory (Short Form) questionnaire; from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain), ratings from 1 to 4 corresponded to mild pain, 5 to 6 to moderate pain, and 7 to 10 to severe pain with cut-off points being 4 and 6. Scoring pain severity is the mean of the total pain score out of 10. Interference from 0 (no interference) to 10 (completely interferes), rating mild (<=5), moderate (6-7), and severe (>= 8) with cut-off points being 5 and 7. Scoring the interference severity is the mean of the total Interference score out of 10. A response will be considered as a reduced cut-off point from baseline.
baseline, 4-week and 2-month follow-up
Change from baseline irritable bowels syndrome severity
Time Frame: baseline, 4-week and 2-month follow-up
To assess the response effect of the TaVNS on the severity of irritable bowel syndrome measured by the self-administered Irritable Bowel Syndrome Severity Scoring System (IBS-SSS), where the maximum achievable score is 500. Mild, moderate and severe categories were indicated by scores of 75 to 175, 175 to 300 and > 300 respectively, with cut-off points being 175 and 300. A response will be considered as a reduced cut-off point from baseline.
baseline, 4-week and 2-month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Kinesis Health Associates

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Pascal JD Grolaux, DO

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 1, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 31, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

September 15, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 1, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 14, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

February 22, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 22, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 20, 2018

Last Verified

February 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • TaVNS_PHC

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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