NCT01569789

Effects of Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation on the Pro-inflammatory Cytokine Response in Healthy Adults

• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 1
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 24 (actual)
• Sponsor: Northwell Health · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 60 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The autonomic (self-regulating) nervous system is important for the function of many organs in the body. The vagus nerve is part of the autonomic nervous system. The vagus nerve carries incoming information from the nervous system to the brain, providing information about what the body is doing, and it also transmits outgoing information which governs a range of reflex responses. It plays an important role in the immune system. A part of the vagus nerve is reachable for stimulation at specific locations in the ear. The purpose of this study is to better understand how different ways of stimulating the vagus nerve at the ear can affect a chemical marker of inflammation found in human blood that is associated with a variety of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. This information may lead to in future studies to see if stimulation of the vagus nerve can improve inflammation in chronic inflammatory diseases.

Conditions

• Cytokine Response to Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Vagus Nerve Stimulator	Voltage 2, placed on cymba concha
DEVICE	Vagus Nerve Stimulator	Voltage 2, place on the placebo area of the calf

Timeline

• Start date: 2012-01-01
• Primary completion: 2015-01-01
• Completion: 2015-01-01
• First posted: 2012-04-03
• Last updated: 2015-04-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States