eBioMedicine<\/a>, gathered together seven clinical trials totaling 247 participants, plus a handful of plans from upcoming studies. Volunteers inhaled either 25 percent or 50 percent nitrous oxide, while control groups breathed in placebos. Unsurprisingly, the beefier 50 percent dose worked better. <\/p>\nHowever, it also brought along a nasty set of side effects like nausea, headaches, and a weird out-of-body sensation that participants found uncomfortable. Side effects aside, depressive symptoms were gone within two hours. And while they didn\u2019t stick around, it wasn\u2019t for too long. <\/p>\n
Laughing Gas Shows Real Promise As Treatment For Severe Depression<\/p>\n
Relief typically faded within a week unless the treatments continued. But the real focus here is the speed at which it made a massive difference in the lives of study participants. That puts it in the same conversation as ketamine, another fast-acting depression fighter that can lead to several adverse effects if overused.<\/p>\n
As for why it works, the leading theory proposed by the researchers is that next oxide turns down the volume on the brain\u2019s glutamatergic system, which is the neural communication network that has long been identified as playing a key role in depression. <\/p>\n
Some side benefits likely play a role, like how nitrous oxide increases blood flow, which could boost the brain\u2019s nutrient cycling and help clear out some of the junk chemicals lingering there. It\u2019s essentially giving your brain a good old-fashioned power wash and detailed scrub.<\/p>\n
The researchers are, of course, exercising caution, reminding us that we are still in the very early stages of understanding nitrous oxide\u2019s effect on depression. A lot more research is needed before therapists can start recommending laughing gas dosages to the most severe depression sufferers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a scientific discovery so obvious it\u2019ll make you wonder why we didn\u2019t just assume it the whole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[2754,97,171018,271,259,260,3,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-340441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-depression","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-laughing-gas","11":"tag-life","12":"tag-mental-health","13":"tag-mentalhealth","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}