. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2025 Aug 25.

Published in final edited form as: J Transl Gastroenterol. 2025 Jun 30;3(2):93–99. doi: 10.14218/jtg.2025.00024

Table 1.

Clinical trials using transcutaneous vagal nerve stimulation for DGBIs

Disease	Intervention	Stimulation parameters	Major results
Disease	Intervention	Stimulation parameters	Symptoms	Mechanisms

Laryngopharyngeal reflux disease	taVNS³⁴	25Hz, 2s on, 3s off, 0.5ms	Reduced reflux symptoms index scores; reduced anxiety and depression scores	Enhanced both upper and lower esophageal sphincter pressure. Enhanced vagal activities.
Functional dyspepsia	taVNS¹¹	25Hz, 2s on, 3s off, 0.5ms	Improved overall dyspeptic symptoms, decreased scores of anxiety and depression, reduced abdominal pain	Improved gastric accommodation. Enhanced vagal efferent activity.
	taVNS²⁶	10Hz or 25Hz, 30s on, 30s off, 0.5ms	Reduced symptom scores of stomach pain, bloating, and fullness	Not studied
Gastroparesis	tcVNS²⁰	Not reported	Improved major symptoms of gastroparesis, including nausea, vomiting, fullness, early satiety, and bloating; reduced abdominal pain	Accelerated gastric emptying
Constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C).	taVNS²⁵	25Hz, 2s on, 3s off, 0.5ms	Improved the weekly number of complete spontaneous bowel movements, abdominal pain, IBS symptoms, and quality of life	Improved rectal sensation. Decreased proinflammatory cytokines. Enhanced vagal activity.
Abdominal pain-related functional GI disorders in adolescents	PENFS²¹	Alternating frequencies (1ms pulses of 1 and 10Hz), 2 h on, 2 h off for 120 h.	Had greater reduction in worst pain compared with sham treatment; the effects were sustained for an extended period.	Not studied
IBS in adolescents	PENFS²⁴	Alternating frequencies (1ms pulses of 1 and 10Hz), 2 h on, 2 h off for 120 h.	Reduced 30% or more in worst abdominal pain; improved global symptoms	Not studied
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in children	taVNS²⁹	20Hz, 0.3ms	Clinical remission, represented by wPCDAI or PUCAI score, was achieved in 50% with CD and 33% with UC	Reduced fecal calprotectin. Enhanced vagal activity.

CD, Crohn’s disease; DGBIs, disorders of gut-brain interaction; GI, gastrointestinal; PENFS, percutaneous electrical nerve field stimulation; PUCAI, pediatric ulcerative colitis activity index; taVNS, transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation; tcVNS, transcutaneous cervical vagal nerve stimulation; UC, ulcerative colitis; wPCDAI, weighted pediatric Crohn’s disease activity index.