Nitrous oxide, laughing gas, gets a bad rap. The reason is the increase in recreational use among teenagers and young adults when the health risks are potentially very serious, even fatal. However, it can be life-changing for depressed people who are resistant to medication.
Nitrous oxide, also known as nitrous oxide, is typically available in whipped cream siphon cartridges, to be rehabilitated. “Laughing gas lacks credibility and suffers from a bad image, particularly because of its recreational use, which is not without risk.” Inserm explains.
Indeed, what also calls itself proto, whose consumption has increased in recent years among 15-25 year olds, can cause serious effects. Among others: suffocation from lack of oxygen, cold gas burns, dizziness, disorientation, loss of consciousness and collapse. “In case of repeated consumption over short periods and/or high doses, serious neurological, hematological, psychiatric or cardiac disorders may occur”Notes the Interministerial Mission to Combat Drugs and Addictive Behaviors (MILDECA).
Reduction of symptoms after a single exposure
But nitrous oxide is also associated with antidepressant effects. Psychiatrist Thomas Desmid of Tours University Hospital (Indre-et-Loire) published them with the iBrain team of Insurm using medical imaging. They exposed thirty women to a gas mixture equal to O for one hour2 than N2O, called ‘an equivalent mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide (MEOPA)’, is the most common form of laughing gas used in the medical environment.
About twenty, aged 25 to 50, had medication-resistant depression, the other ten were volunteers without depression. Results: Exposure to Myopa, administered by mask, significantly reduced symptoms in 45% of patients. According to Thomas Desmid, these positive results confirm previous studies: “Positive responses to N2O in depression is in the order of 20 to 40%, after a single exposure to the product.
Clinical routine in 4 to 5 years?
Functional MRI showed decreased brain connectivity in nine patients with brain regions that are concurrently activated in depressed patients. “The Meopa session makes it possible to ‘turn off’ this cerebral network whose hypersensitivity is synonymous with depressive pain and rumination”, explains the researcher. The ultrasound method suggests a link between the vasodilatory properties of nitrous oxide and its antidepressant effect.
These encouraging results will still need to be validated on a larger scale. It also has to determine the percentage of N2O In combination, time and number of exposures … Some randomized therapeutic trials should emerge in elderly depressed people but also in patients who present to the emergency room with suicidal thoughts. “In four to five years, we should have enough elements, I hope, to use nitrous oxide in clinical routine,” concludes Thomas Desmitt.
Note: According to the 2021 survey, 12.5% of 18- to 25-year-olds had experienced a major depressive episode in the 12 months prior to the survey. The study highlights an unprecedented acceleration in depressive episodes between 2017 and 2021. According to Inserm, typical depressive disorder affects approximately 15 to 20% of the general population throughout their lives and is characterized by a succession of typical depressive episodes. The risk of suicide is 10 to 20% of patients. About 30% of patients are resistant to any form of pharmacological treatment.
