Is the the vagus nerve stimulator effective for depression?

Yes: Yes, but because installing it involves the risk, pain and expense of major surgery, it is not often used. Less drastic interventions such as routine meds, augmentation meds, ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) and tcm (transcranial magnetic stimulation) would be used first, ordinarily.

Not very: My partner referred several treatment resistant pts and none of them were helped.

VNS: Is FDA approved and easy to titrated. I have many patients who have benefited greatly when other approaches have failed. unlike ECT there is a marked reduction in seizures.