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The VNS Therapy System includes a small magnet. This may be useful if you experience any troublesome side effects that need to be temporarily controlled.¹

You can hold or place the magnet over your VNS Therapy pulse generator to temporarily stop stimulation during certain situations or activities when even mild side effects are troublesome, for example¹:

• Public speaking
• Singing
• Exercise or other strenuous activity

If you find that you need to stop the stimulation often because of side effects, contact your psychiatrist. He or she can adjust the dose to help control the side effects.

"If the patient is having troublesome side effects, the patient is given the VNS Therapy magnet, which they can place over the device, which will stop stimulation. So for example, the patient may be wanting to sing in a choir, or choir rehearsal, they might place the magnet over the device during those rehearsal times and performance times, and yet have the device continue to provide therapy on other occasions when they remove the magnet."

—A. John Rush, MD, Department of Psychiatry and Neurosurgery
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas

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Reference:
1. Depression Physician's Manual. VNS Therapy ^TM Pulse Model 102 Generator and VNS Therapy^TM Pulse Duo Model 102R Generator.Houston, Tex: Cyberonics, Inc.; 2005