“Thank you for sharing your impressions so far “” nothing beats first-hand experience!” — Greg

You should have told this to CMS when they declined to pay for the therapy. Not only doesn’t first-hand experience count, they’re not interested in listening to the leading psychiatric researchers and thought leaders in the field.

Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com

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Thank you for sharing your impressions so far — nothing beats first-hand experience! :-)

All the best,
Greg

While many doctors are in one form or another compensated by various sponsors it doesn’t preclude that their findings and/or statements are tainted or biased.

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“At the time, Linda Andre, of the nonprofit Alliance for Human Research Protection in New York, called VNS “the latest moneymaking gimmick” designed to rapidly expand the market for products made by Cyberonics “” the only supplier of VNS equipment.”

Does it matter that Linda Andre knows as much about this therapy option as she does about surf boarding or rocket science? While I can’t speak about her knowledge of surf boarder or rocket science and I can speak about her knowledge about this therapy. She knows infinitesimally less than Drs. George, Nahas, Sackeim, Rush, Conway, Lisanby, Nemeroff, Pelta et al and to which I’ll add even far less than Mr. Charlie Donovan, who has already responded and me as well as the many the VNS patients who are now benefiting from this therapy after decades of unsuccessful treatment option after treatment.

Does putting some organizational name after Ms. Andres’ name qualify her to know what she’s talking about. How about you folks checking the professional credentials of the doctors I’ve stated. Oh! Was that doctor Linda Andre or PhD after her name? No need for an answer, I already know the answer. Since you or Ms. Andre never took the time to better research the subject I’ll enlighten you to the fact that there are over 200 of the leading Psychiatric researchers, clinicians, educators and thought leaders acknowledging the remarkable long-term remissions being obtained in clinical practice for this most difficult and seriously ill patient populations. I’ll also add that some 36,000 member of the APA (American Psychiatric Association) having nothing whatsoever to do with the sponsor have been polled and acknowledged the benefits and need for the therapy.

I’ll also point out that Joe Namath, Frank Sinatra and J. Edgar Hoover have also been known to have associated with Mafia members. While these associations may appear as improprieties none have been judged in a court of law guilty or to be in violation of any law as it applies to the innuendos being perpetrated in your statements. While many doctors are in one form or another compensated by various sponsors it does preclude that their findings and/or statements are tainted or biased. Maybe you forgot, “Innocent until proven guilty.” The improprieties often take place when disclosure of relationships is omitted. Then to if one reads anyone reads these various medical studies there are often differences of professional opinions.

I’ll dispense with Ms. Andres’ limited or little ill gotten knowledge and her statements on the subject to share with your readers very briefly that my spouse was one of the earliest study subjects for VNS Therapy for TRD (Treatment Resistant Depression) almost 8 years ago. Her results have been nothing short of remarkable. She has been almost continuously depression free with little or no medications for the past 7 years. Similar patient experiences are also being recorded. My wife’s attending Psychiatrist, Dr. Ely Pelta, probably attends to the largest number of VNS patients for depression and while very skeptical at first his clinical experiences with the improvement of some of his most difficult to treat patients is impressive.

The issues relating to this therapy are more related, in my opinion, to our administration’s penchant for “Power/Politics/Money games” than it is to the concerns and wellness for the citizens of this country. Add to which there is the continued discrimination and stigmatization directed to those that suffer from serious mood disorders and the continued lack of parity in health care coverage.

While Mr. Linda Andre and a cadre of her friends and associates advocate from negativism I have maintained and prefer an advocacy of pro-activism and achieving wellness for the patient through whatever means or therapy available.

As noted by Charlie Donovan, his website offering and experiences as well as my more than 8 years of accumulating information both pro and con in a repository of information and commentary in and unbiased and as balanced a format as I could possibly achieve is also available to your readers at:

VNSdepression.com

The link is: http://www.vnsdepression.com

From there I also share other resources to VNS patient message forums in which these caring and supportive individuals can share their experiences as well as knowledge with anyone interested.

If anything I’ve learned from reading and watching the news media and especially websites on the Internet and that is to very, very carefully make every effort to validate the sources and qualifications of the writers and the information being presented.

I place a special emphasis on the patient and his/her support person(s) to be educated to make informed and un-coerced medical decisions with one’s compassionate, caring, knowledgeable and licensed health care professional(s) and I also place emphasis on encouraging hope and persistence.

Warmly,
Herb Stein
VNSdepression.com

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After 20+ years of chronic depression, I have been depression-free for five years thanks to vagus nerve stimulation therapy( a $25,000 out-patient procedure. It’s truly a miracle.

The most important thing is that this study was led by Harold Sackeim, Ph.D. of Columbia University. Dr. Sackeim is the leading psychiatric thought leader in the country on treating the most severely depressed and difficult to treat patient population.

Charles E. Donovan
http://www.MyDepressionSpace.com