case_images: PMC5711775_01
case_images: Timeline of patient's clinical history from childhood to daith piercing insertion.
case_images: fneur-08-00624-g001.jpg
case_images: PMC5711775_01_fneur-08-00624-g001.jpg
case_images: F1
case_images: His clinical history is summarized in Figure 1.
case_images: (A) Patient's left ear with daith piercing located at the crus of the helix. (B) Shows the possible mechanism of action of daith piercing: a nociceptive sensory stimulus provided by daith piercing activates vagal afferents which, through the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS), exert an inhibitory action on neurons in the caudal trigeminal nucleus; vagal activation can also modulate pain perception by means projections from NTS to the locus coeruleus and to the nucleus raphe magnus.
case_images: fneur-08-00624-g002.jpg
case_images: PMC5711775_01_fneur-08-00624-g002.jpg
case_images: F2
case_images: Since the repeated therapeutic attempts led only to minimum benefit, in March 2016, the patient decided, on his own free will, to get a "daith piercing," which is an ear piercing located at the crus of the helix (Figure 2A), bilaterally.