Cape Girardeau, Missouri news highlights UC clinical trial

KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, Missouri highlighted a University of Cincinnati clinical trial testing a wearable neurostimulation device to help patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stick with medication treatment while finding the right dose.

UC's Joel Sprunger, principal investigator of the trial, said the medication buprenorphine is an effective treatment to help patients with OUD manage symptoms of opioid use disorder withdrawal, but there is an adjustment period of up to three months as each patient finds the right dose to manage their symptoms.

In response to this challenge, the trial will utilize the Sparrow Ascent – a patient-administered wearable device that delivers mild electrical stimulation to the cranial branches of the vagus and trigeminal nerves on and around the ear. 

Sprunger said the stimulation “pumps the brakes” on the sympathetic nervous system by enhancing parasympathetic activity, helping to transition someone from fight-or-flight to “rest and digest.”

“By providing people control over that stimulation, we can empower them with a way to turn it on when needed and feel some relief,” said Sprunger, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience in UC’s College of Medicine. “Their heart rate slows down, breathing slows down and there’s a lot less of a sense of panic and urgency. So that’s the key ingredient that we think will hit both PTSD and opioid withdrawal symptoms at the same time.”  

The trial is enrolling patients at the Gibson Center for Behavioral Change in Cape Girardeau. 

“It does give the patient some ownership and some control over their treatment,” Ryan Essex, Gibson Center chief operating officer, told KFVS. "We get to bring cutting edge treatment options to populations who are kind of our most vulnerable and don’t get access to those."

Watch or read the KFVS story.

NeuroNews also highlighted the trial. Read the NeuroNews story.

Read more about the trial.

Featured photo at top of woman wearing the Sparrow Ascent device. Photo/Spark Biomedical.