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Herb
11-07-2006, 08:36 PM
To the readership,

I find this treatment option for TRD (Treatment Resistant Depression) discussion missing from these forums.

My spouse was one of the earliest participants as a study subject in the use of VNS for TRD. After refractory treatment options and alternative therapies for some 37 years we have achieved a reasonable degree of wellness for my spouse.

She was implanted almost 7 years ago and she has been enjoying an almost continuously depression free state with little or no psychotropic medications. This is not an endorsement to do as we do but it is an advocacy to educate one self to all available treatment options in order to achieve wellness. The VNS therapy is not a panacea. There will be a percentage of patients achieving a degree of wellness. What it does afford as a consideration to those who suffered for a multitude of years and have tried many medications and therapies an additional opportunity to consider one of the newest approaches to depression control, neuro-modulation.

The therapy was FDA approved July 2005.

For anyone interested in further educating one self please click on my name as I don’t know if I’m allowed to link our website which is intended to educate the patient and/or prospective patient and to direct the reader to additional sources for information.

Whatever choice one makes in their treatment option I do wish you all a speedy ascent to wellness.

Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com (http://www.vnsdepression.com)

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RustyD
11-09-2006, 03:16 AM
Thanks for posting this... I will be talking to my doctors about this... And I am so happy it helped your family!!

sengels
11-24-2006, 12:53 AM
I am extremely interested in VNS for all sorts of conditions. My depression is nasty but it is controlled by medication (barely). I also have A.D.D. so severe that if any SSDI official stuck by me for one day they would without a doubt conclude that I am disabled. I can't barely walk and chew gum at the same time. I was on Ritalin for 7 yrs pre-baby, but that was 4 yrs ago. Then I had terrible headaches (Trigeminal Neuralgia) and had brain surgery last week to get rid of them and the heavy anti-convulsants required to control them. I couldn't take Ritalin at the same time as those drugs. I don't regret it for one minute. Now I can go back on Ritalin. But I would rather have my brain "fixed" once again than start up on meds again. I wonder if VNS would do it for me. People think I am crazy for not exhausting all my options first, but jeez, I'd much rather go in for surgery than take a cocktail of pills every 4 hours every day. I am hoping this surgery picks up speed. I'll sign up.