Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul;17(3):385-392.
doi: 10.3988/jcn.2021.17.3.385.

Effect of Long-Term Treatment with Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Mood and Quality of Life in Korean Patients with Drug-Resistant Epilepsy

Jeong Sik Kim  1 , Dong Yeop Kim  1 , Hyun Jin Jo  1 , Yoon Ha Hwang  1 , Joo Yeon Song  1 , Kwang Ik Yang  2 , Seung Bong Hong  3
Affiliations

Effect of Long-Term Treatment with Vagus Nerve Stimulation on Mood and Quality of Life in Korean Patients with Drug-Resistant Epilepsy

Jeong Sik Kim et al. J Clin Neurol. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Background and purpose: This study aimed to determine the long-term effects of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) treatment on suicidality, mood-related symptoms, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). We also investigated the relationships among these main effects, clinical characteristics, and VNS parameters.

Methods: Among 35 epilepsy patients who underwent VNS implantation consecutively in our epilepsy center, 25 patients were recruited to this study for assessing the effects of VNS on suicidality, mood-related symptoms, and QOL. The differences in these variables between before and after VNS treatment were analyzed statistically using paired t-tests. Multiple linear regression analyses were also performed to determine how the patients' demographic and clinical characteristics influenced the variables that showed statistically significant changes after long-term VNS treatment.

Results: After VNS, our patients showed significant improvements not only in the mean seizure frequency but also in suicidality, depression, and QOL. The reduction in depression was associated with the improvement in QOL and more-severe depression at baseline. The reduction in suicidality was associated with higher suicidality at baseline, smaller changes in depression, and less-severe depression at baseline. Improved QOL was associated with lower suicidality at baseline.

Conclusions: This study found that VNS decreased the mean seizure frequency in patients with DRE, and also improved their depression, suicidality, and QOL. These results provide further evidence for therapeutic effect of VNS on psychological comorbidities of patients with DRE.

Keywords: depression; epilepsy; quality of life; suicidality; vagus nerve stimulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Hitiris N, Mohanraj R, Norrie J, Sills GJ, Brodie MJ. Predictors of pharmacoresistant epilepsy. Epilepsy Res. 2007;75:192–196. - PubMed
    1. Salpekar JA, Mishra G, Hauptman AJ. Key issues in addressing the comorbidity of depression and pediatric epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2015;46:12–18. - PubMed
    1. Witt JA, Helmstaedter C. Cognition in epilepsy: current clinical issues of interest. Curr Opin Neurol. 2017;30:174–179. - PubMed
    1. Thompson AW, Miller JW, Katon W, Chaytor N, Ciechanowski P. Sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with depression in epilepsy. Epilepsy Behav. 2009;14:655–660. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pack AM. Epilepsy and suicidality: what's the relationship? Epilepsy Curr. 2016;16:236–238. - PMC - PubMed