Chronic pain affects more individuals than heart diseases, cancer, and diabetes combined, and is a leading driver of the opioid epidemic. Non-pharmacologic options are needed in order to better treat chronic pain and decrease reliance on opioids. While invasive procedures exist to aid in treating some of these pain syndromes, they carry additional side effects such as bleeding, infection, and nerve injury, and may not be appropriate for all patients. Additionally, central pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia still have few if any interventional options outside of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy.
The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together a collection of papers that individually and collectively use non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation such as transcutaneous auricular or cervical vagal nerve stimulation to treat chronic pain. Mechanistic studies and trials performed in both humans as well as animal models are welcome. These insights will help to further advance the novel use of non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation for the treatment of various chronic pain syndromes.
We welcome the submission of manuscripts including, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Human clinical trials using non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation for chronic pain
-dose-finding studies
-studies in various types of pain syndromes, especially central pain syndromes
-sympathetically-mediated pain states
• Pathobiological insights generated by these models
• Novel targets identified for use in optimizing therapy
Chronic pain affects more individuals than heart diseases, cancer, and diabetes combined, and is a leading driver of the opioid epidemic. Non-pharmacologic options are needed in order to better treat chronic pain and decrease reliance on opioids. While invasive procedures exist to aid in treating some of these pain syndromes, they carry additional side effects such as bleeding, infection, and nerve injury, and may not be appropriate for all patients. Additionally, central pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia still have few if any interventional options outside of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy.
The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together a collection of papers that individually and collectively use non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation such as transcutaneous auricular or cervical vagal nerve stimulation to treat chronic pain. Mechanistic studies and trials performed in both humans as well as animal models are welcome. These insights will help to further advance the novel use of non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation for the treatment of various chronic pain syndromes.
We welcome the submission of manuscripts including, but not limited to, the following topics:
• Human clinical trials using non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation for chronic pain
-dose-finding studies
-studies in various types of pain syndromes, especially central pain syndromes
-sympathetically-mediated pain states
• Pathobiological insights generated by these models
• Novel targets identified for use in optimizing therapy
