Nitrous oxide , otherwise known aslaughing gas , may represent a new weapon in the fighting against depression after a study found that inhale the heady sum for just one time of day produces lasting improvement in patients who have failed to respond to other treatment . Appearing in the journalScience Translational Medicine , the new research suggests that down doses of the gas are sufficient to produce a significant therapeutic effect , with none of the undesirable side - personal effects associated with high doses .
" A large percentage of patient do n’t answer to stock antidepressant therapies – the patients in this study had fail an average of 4.5 antidepressant trials – and it ’s very significant to find therapy to help oneself these patients , " explained study author Charles R. Conway in astatement .
" That we saw rapid improvements in many such affected role in the study suggests nitrous oxide may help masses with reallysevere , repellent depression . "
Standard anti - depressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor work by interacting with serotonin sense organ in the brain , yet can take several weeks to start produce results . azotic oxide , however , act upon on NMDA receptors , and is therefore capable of grow obtrusive effects much quicker .
In an other field , researchers ascertain that inhaling a mixing containing 50 percent nitrous oxide and 50 percentage oxygen generates rapid betterment in depressive symptoms . However , the patient enrolled in that subject field were only monitored for 24 hour , think of the researchers were unable to determine whether these effects were long - lasting or transient . Furthermore , a identification number of participants formulate side event such as sickness , abstemious - headedness , and sedation .
The subject area authors decided to investigate whether lower disk operating system of the flatulency father similar improvement , and how long these change stay . To do so , they raise 24 patients with discourse - resistive low to take part in three dosing sessions spaced four week apart , during which they were call for to inhale laughing gas for one hour .
In one of these Roger Sessions , patients receive express mirth flatulency consisting of 50 percent nitrous oxide and 50 percentage O , while another saw them take in 25 percent azotic oxide and 75 percent O , and a placebo containing no nitric oxide was supplied during the remaining session .
Results showed that theantidepressive effectsproduced by the inhalation of 25 pct azotic oxide were like to those generated by the 50 percent concoction , and that the improvements colligate with both concentrations lasted for a full four weeks .
However , the reductions in slump at the two - calendar week stage were somewhat large following treatment with 50 percent nitrous oxide than 25 percent . This extra benefit is offset , however , by the fact that the lower absorption was associated with a four - fold lessening in side effects .
“ When [ patients ] received 25 % nitrous oxide , no one developed nausea , ” said Conway . “ And that lower VD was just about as effective as the high dose at exempt depressive disorder . "
By the remainder of the field , 85 pct of participants see their depressive symptom ameliorate by a full category , cast off from austere to moderate , for example . Fifty - five percent meanwhile , experienced improvement in at least one-half of their depressive symptoms , while 40 percent were in remission , meaning they no longer qualified for a clinical depressive disorder diagnosing .
In acting on NMDA receptors , express mirth gas appear to function via the same mechanism asketamine , which has been greatly celebrated as a tight - acting anti - depressive . However , the study authors note that the deficiency of side effects associate with downhearted - dose nitrous oxide may make it a more worthy treatment .
" One potential advantage to nitrous oxide , compared with Ketalar , is that because it ’s a volatile throttle , its anesthetic effects subside very quickly , " said Conway . " It ’s similar to what happens in a dentist ’s berth when the great unwashed force back themselves home after obtain a tooth extract . ”
“ After treatment with ketamine , patients need to be observed for two hours following discussion to make certain they are OK , and then they have to get someone else to repel them . "
