title: The antidepressant mechanism of action of vagus nerve stimulation: Evidence from preclinical studies.
abstract: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a proposed neuromodulatory treatment for medically refractory major depression. Although VNS is already used in clinical practice, the underlying mechanism of action remains unknown. The present review provides an overview of the preclinical VNS studies in view of two major hypotheses in depression research: the monoaminergic and the neural plasticity hypothesis of depression.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Neurophysiology, Neurobiology and Neuropsychology (LCEN3), Ghent University, Department of Neurology, Institute for Neuroscience, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: annelies.grimonprez@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Annelies
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grimonprez
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Neurophysiology, Neurobiology and Neuropsychology (LCEN3), Ghent University, Department of Neurology, Institute for Neuroscience, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: robrecht.raedt@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Robrecht
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raedt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Psychiatry, UZ Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: chris.baeken@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baeken
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Neurophysiology, Neurobiology and Neuropsychology (LCEN3), Ghent University, Department of Neurology, Institute for Neuroscience, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: paul.boon@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boon
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Clinical and Experimental Neurophysiology, Neurobiology and Neuropsychology (LCEN3), Ghent University, Department of Neurology, Institute for Neuroscience, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: kristl.vonck@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Kristl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vonck
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical; D055536:Vagus Nerve Stimulation / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Major depressive disorder; The monoaminergic hypothesis of major depressive disorder; The neural plasticity hypothesis of major depressive disorder; Vagus nerve stimulation