Non-Invasive Vagal Nerve Stimulation in Opioid Use Disorders

Subjects in this study will be patients with opioid use disorders (OUDs) based on DSM-5 criteria recruited from the greater Atlanta metropolitan region. The metropolitan Atlanta area has about 2,623,744 persons age 12 or older. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 109,777 (4.18%) have non-medical use of prescription pain relievers, and 48,302 are estimated to have an opioid use disorder. This DSMP describes the UG3 phase which will study patients with OUDs early in the course of treatment. The Go-No Go criteria listed below have to be met to proceed to the UH3. Recruitment will be from treatment programs in the greater Atlanta Metropolitan Region including the DeKalb Community Service Board residential, detoxification and other treatment programs which with over 30,000 patient visits per year represents the largest treatment program in one of two urban counties in greater Atlanta. The first UG3 phase will involve an exploratory study in 20 patients with OUDs to assess different timing parameters of nVNS effects on sympathetic measures and symptoms of craving, as well as modelling to verify and iteratively refine our methods for vagal nerve stimulation. The investigators in this trial will then apply nVNS in a pilot study comparing active (N=10) to sham (N=10) in OUD patients recently started on medication, looking at opioid craving, brain functional response with HR-PET, and cardiovascular and inflammatory biomarker responses to imagery-induced opioid drug craving. Brain function will be measured with high resolution positron emission tomography (HR-PET), autonomic function with wearable sensing devices, and biomarkers will be measured in blood, with an assessment of a broad range of stress responsive sympathetic, hormonal and immune markers.