12.30.15 | Brain Stimulation Journal
How Mental Health is Shortchanged by Lack of Reimbursement for Vagus Nerve Stimulation
With a continuing weekly newsfeed on the destructive conse- quences of inadequate mental healthcare and with growing data on how depression negatively impacts the ability to perform daily tasks and engage in social interactions, why does a proven therapeutic intervention for chronic depression still remain far out of reach for so many patients?
More than one-third of the patients who can tolerate first-line antidepressant pharmacotherapies do not achieve remission or re- sponse to treatment; they may be defined as having treatment- resistant depression (TRD) [1]. While the variety of available drugs and treatment courses demonstrate efficacy in some patients, the current treatment paradigm continues to fail millions of people worldwide each year, which emphasizes the need for new, acces- sible classes of therapies with greater promise.
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