Pilot Study on Expiratory-gated taVNS for War-Related PTSD Symptoms

20 women with PTSD symptoms from the war in Ukraine underwent a four-week intervention of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation combined with slow breathing. Data includes self-reported PTSD, depression, anxiety, sleep, and somatic symptom scores, plus physiological measures like heart rate variability and respiratory rate, collected at five time points from one month before to two months after the intervention. The dataset, shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license by Mikołaj Szulczewski, totals 1.3 GB.

Use Cases

• Analyze changes in PTSD symptom severity (PCL-5 scores) over multiple measurement time points.
• Investigate correlations between physiological measures (heart rate variability, respiratory rate) and self-reported mental health scores.
• Evaluate the longitudinal effects of a combined taVNS and slow breathing intervention on comorbid depression and anxiety (HSCL-25 scores).
• Assess the relationship between somatic symptoms (PHQ-15) and other outcome measures before and after the intervention.

Strengths

• Includes longitudinal data from five distinct measurement time points (T1 to T5), allowing for pre-post and follow-up analysis.
• Combines multiple validated clinical assessment tools (PCL-5, HSCL-25, ISI, PHQ-15) with objective physiological measurements.
• Focuses on a specific, understudied population: 20 women with war-related PTSD symptoms who experienced forced migration from Ukraine.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for certain analytical methods.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The sample is small and homogeneous (20 women), limiting generalizability of findings.

Provenance

Source

Mikołaj Szulczewski

Collection Method

Prospective pragmatic pre-post observational study with a four-week intervention.

Time Range

Measurements span from one month before intervention to two months after intervention.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-27 11:56:40; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Participants are individuals who experienced war in Ukraine and forced migration.