electroCore, Inc. announced the publication of two peer reviewed publications supporting the use of gammaCore (non-invasive vagal nerve stimulation; nVNS) in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The first paper entitled "Effect of transcutaneous cervical vagus nerve stimulation on declarative and working memory in patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A pilot study" wasauthored by Tilendra Choudhary and the second, "Transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation modulates stress-induced plasma ghrelin levels: A double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial" was written by Kasra Moazzami. Both studies were conducted at Emory University and were published in the peer reviewed Journal of Affective Stress Disorder.

The prevalence of PTSD in the United States is estimated at 10-12% in women and 5-6% in men, and the prevalence in veterans can be twice as high. Ghrelin is a neuropeptide hypothesized to be involved in the stress response but also plays an important role in the regulation of appetite. Biomarkers that can be easily assessed can help identify likely responders to a specific therapy and are critical to improving the patient experience and decreasing health care costs.

The results of this study showed that TCVNS, in conjunction with personalized traumatic scripts, resulted in lower ghrelin levels (265.2 +- 143.6 pg/ml vs 478.7 +- 349.2 pg/ml, P = 0.01). Additionally, after completing the public speaking and mental math tests, ghrelin levels were found to be lower in the group receiving TCVNS (293.3 +- 102.4 pg/ml vs 540.3 +- 203.9 pg/ml, P =0.009).2 Ghrelin may be involved in behaviors like stress-induced over-eating, suggesting future avenues of research into the potential for nVNS in the treatment of obesity and possibly stress-induced eating disorders.