Transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve as a migraine treatment: systematic review

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Migraine is a type of primary headache that is controlled mainly by drugs to treat the crisis or as prophylaxis. The side effects and high cost of the medication justify the search for non-pharmacological treatment options. There is evidence that electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve (VNS) is capable of modulating structures related to the pathophysiology of migraine. The objective of this review was to investigate the effectiveness of transcutaneous VNS (tVNS) in the acute or prophylactic treatment of migraine with and without aura. CONTENTS: A search was carried out in the Pubmed database using all descriptors for vagus nerve stimulation and migraine, without time limit and with the filter “randomized clinical trial” (RCT). This search strategy ultimately identified 7 articles that were read in full and subjected to a quality analysis using the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine tool. Of the 7 RCTs found, 4 were prophylaxis studies and 3 were acute treatment studies. CONCLUSION: There is some compromise in the internal validity of all studies. Migraine prophylaxis with tVNS did not present relevant benefits that justify its use, especially with a protocol with poor adherence. Acute treatment of migraine with tNVS proved to be effective in some patients and may be a non-pharmacological treatment option. These results justify the carrying out of new RCTs where there are no doubts about their internal validity.

Keywords

• migraine disorders
• review
• vagus nerve stimulation