Trigeminal nerve stimulation (TNS) protocol for treating major depression: An open-label proof-of-concept trial

Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation (TNS) for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Case Study

“…The present study investigated the intrasession reliability of MEP amplitude and latency using the BB muscle of 14 healthy participants (4 females, mean age 29.6 AE 6.7 years, 13 right handed), in comparison to those obtained from the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle. Intrasession reliability is important to determine given that many investigations using TMS take place over a single testing session, such as those measuring corticospinal excitability immediately following an intervention of repetitive TMS [6], or transcranial direct current stimulation [7].…”

“…Following previous results of different neuromodulation strategies, Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation (TNS) may also be able to exert anxiolytic effects in the clinical scenario. TNS is a non-invasive strategy based on the application of an low-energy electric signal to stimulate branches of the trigeminal nerve with further propagation of the stimuli toward brain areas related to mood and anxiety symptoms [6]. TNS has been reported to reduce anxiety symptoms in patients with a primary diagnosis of major depression [7] but has not been previously examined as a treatment for primary GAD.…”

Transcutaneous Vagus and Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation: A New Perspective in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders

“…Following this hypothesis, Cook et al have initially proposed transcutaneous stimulation of the supraorbitary branch of the trigeminal nerve (TNS) with interesting results for major depressive disorder [8,9]. Following the leading results of Cook et al, Shiozawa et al proposed an innovative brief 10-day TNS protocol [10] that has been tested for depressive symptoms in a randomized sham-controlled clinical trial with positive results. The authors found significant interaction between the mean percentage change in depressive symptoms in the two groups over time with mean reduction of 6.32 points in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS17); p=0.002 [11].…”

Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation (TNS) for Major Depressive Disorder in Pregnancy: A Case Study

“…Further stimuli propagates toward brain areas that are related to mood and anxiety symptoms, such as the amygdala and the frontal lobe [5]. TNS has been successfully associated with the treatment for MDD [6].…”

“…Electric stimulation was performed at 120 Hz with a pulse wave duration of 250 ms for 30 min per day. We used retangular autoadhesive rubber electrodes of 20 cm 2 placed over supraorbital trigeminal branches (V1) bilaterally following our previously tested protocol [5]. For assessing MDD symptoms we used the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale e 17 items (HDRS).…”