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Vagus Nerve Stimulation in the Treatment of Somatic Stress Disorder: Neurobiological Basis, Evidence Base and Prospects for Enhanced Psychotherapy Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has shown mixed but promising results for a number of neuropsychiatric conditions, such as depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain and trauma- and stress-related disorders. However, the evidence to date on the use of VNS for somatic stress disorder is limited. Preliminary findings suggest that VNS influences physiological and psychological mechanisms that are also relevant to the pathophysiology of somatic stress disorder. Future studies should therefore specifically investigate whether VNS can be effectively used as an augmentative approach within psychotherapeutic or multimodal treatment programmes, in order to systematically assess the added benefit of VNS in the context of enhanced psychotherapy.