I have had the opportunity to participate in the
development of antidepressant treatments for over
ten years. Despite advances in pharmacotherapy
there remains a population of patients with
treatment resistant depression who experience a
marginal benefit at best with pharmacotherapy. As
Director of ECT Services, it is clear to me that
for many patients ECT either provides transient
benefit or is not well tolerate. Hence, there is
clearly a need for new, alternative atidepressant
treatments. VNS is just such a novel treatment.

I have worked with VNS for almost five years and
have seen patients enjoy considerable benefit and
in the majority of cases at least benefit which
they judged to be significant. It is unfair and
inappropriate to restrict VNS therapy access
without rationale guidelines. On first pass the
cost of VNS therapy is cited as a reason to
restrict access. However the cummulative cost of
alternative, ineffective treatments can actually
exceed the treatment costs associated with VNS
therapy.