VagustimReviews of vagustim.io

Ordered the device and requested cancellation the very next morning via email. It took several days just to get a first reply, which then asked me to confirm the reason for cancellation before proceeding. reasonable enough, but I responded right away and have now been waiting 2+ more days with no follow-up. I have no idea if my order (#5718) was cancelled or shipped anyway. Customer service response time is far too slow for time-sensitive requests like a cancellation….and why ask if I really want to cancel and let me wait another few days instead of just cancelling?

I have been struggling with insomnia and nervous system issues for years. I believe I can really use a device such as Vagustim and was super excited to try it. I even paid $50 for a video consultation. I was so disappointed when realizing that the device frequencyranges from 0 to 100 but you can only access up to 10 without purchasing an upgraded app which cost at least $100 a year. Even with the free version, I could get the frequency reader to go up to 3 and then it looked like it would not go any higher. I felt nothing in my ear nor any benefits. Knowing that there are other high rated and less expensive vagus nerve stimulator’s on the market, I decided to return it. The email that I received from my return request was a generic response. There was no offer for consultation or further inquiry to address my concerns. I am disappointed. I had hoped for a better experience with a higher priced device. A generic experience deserves a generic price. I know this is a newer company and I believe they just have some learning to do. Instead of charging $350 with surprises, just charge $700 and make it a supportive experience for your customers where their needs are addressed. Folks are buying this device because they have a particular health concern or chronic pain. The company should be helping people address their specific concerns with specific settings on the device. Just put the reflective price upfront and don’t hide it. I am returning it and will try something else on the market.

I'm a physician with treatment resistant depression (TRD.) Invasive vagus nerve stimulation was suggested to me by a psychiatrist. Never having heard of this I dove into the medical literature. Bottom line: I'm not sick enough to pursue this invasive procedure with still fairly limited evidence of clinical efficacy. I did come across info. on the transcutaneous approach in the medical literature so I dove into that data. There are several studies using various proprietary devices, none of which I would have access to outside a clinical trial. The treatment parameters concerning strength of stimulus (mA) and pulse width were many and varied in these studies. It seemed that stimulation of the VN through the ear would be the optimal approach so I started looking online for something I could try. Having realized it's unlikely I'd find something efficacious at all I decided to try this because it was under $500 and I'd already done all this research on optimal device settings for the treatment of depression specifically. Well turns out, if you want to be able to change the settings, you have to pay $9.99/month to upgrade to the "pro" service. Otherwise you are using "one size fits all" hardwired parameters. This strikes me as "bait and switch" as the website does not reveal this. On to the device itself: kind of a cheap feel to it, reminds me of a transistor radio from the 1960's. I've been using it for about a month 30 min./day and the two AA batteries that came with the device have run down. I'm hoping that a new set of batteries will last longer but so far I'm not impressed with battery life. I think they tried hard to get the ear pieces right but, for me, I can only get the left one to stay in. I have to hold the right one pressed in my ear or it will pop out. Ear anatomy is remarkably diverse. I would have preferred a simple on/off device that I didn't have to pair with my phone every time but that would have defeated the purpose of allowing it to be programmable and the whole point of getting us to pay $9.99/month for this service. More info if you're interested. The Turkish MD/PhD associated with this device definitely has published in the medical literature so he seems legit to me. And I can't blame someone who has as good idea and tries to make it available to others to try for a price. I just feel like I was duped about the ability to program different settings. If you want to read on about TRD: invasive VNS was approved by the FDA way back in 2005 for the treatment of TRD. Why hasn't it "caught on" you ask? Well, a surgeon has to dissect down into your neck and find the area where the vagus nerve is very near to your carotid artery (on the left side only) and attach an electrode which runs to a battery pack left tunneled under your skin, much like a pacemaker or the more recent device for sleep apnea called Inspire. There are potential side effects such as hoarseness, cough which may or may not subside with time. The batteries have to be replaced periodically (about every 8 years) which is a small surgical procedure. Having such a device implanted limits your ability to have an MRI done in the future, should you need it, though even folks with pacemakers can get special MRIs done. In the future this may not be an issue but it scares me right now. If the efficacy of this implanted device was a slam dunk I'd try it. But unfortunately it's not. The company that makes the device my psychiatrist friend suggested just completed a 5 year study which failed to meet primary endpoints. This study has yet to be published and there are undoubtedly some folks who have been greatly helped but I can't ignore the science at this point. If I were so sick that I couldn't function I might chance it but, for now, it stays on the back burner. Hope this helps someone else.