2024-03-22 14:35:51
22 mars 2024
Nitrous oxide, laughing gas, gets a bad rap. The cause is an increase in recreational consumption among adolescents and young adults when the health risks are potentially very serious, even fatal. However, it might change the lives of depressed people who are resistant to medication.
Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is used in hospitals for its anesthetic and pain-relieving effects. And according to an Inserm article, published on March 12, it might also be effective in the treatment of depressed people. But before that, nitrous oxide, particularly available in whipped cream siphon cartridges, must be rehabilitated. “Laughing gas lacks credibility and suffers from a bad image, particularly because of its recreational use, which is not without risk,” explains Inserm.
Indeed, the one that also calls itself the proto, whose consumption has increased among 15-25 year olds in recent years, can cause serious effects. Among others: asphyxia from lack of oxygen, cold gas burns, dizziness, disorientation, loss of consciousness and falls. “In the event of repeated consumption at short intervals and/or in high doses, severe neurological, hematological, psychiatric or cardiac disorders may occur”notes the Interministerial Mission to Combat Drugs and Addictive Behaviors (Mildeca).
Reduced symptoms following a single exposure
But nitrous oxide is also associated with antidepressant effects. Psychiatrist Thomas Desmidt from Tours University Hospital (Indre-et-Loire) highlighted them with the iBrain team from Inserm, using medical imaging. They exposed thirty women for one hour to a gas mixture containing as much O2 as N2O, called ‘equimolar mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide (Meopa)’, the most common form of use of laughing gas in medical settings.
Aged 25 to 50, around twenty of these women suffered from medication-resistant depression, the other ten were volunteers without depression. Result: exposure to Meopa, administered by mask, significantly reduced the symptoms of 45% of patients. According to Thomas Desmidt, these positive results confirm previous studies: “positive responses to N2O in depression are of the order of 20 to 40%, following a single exposure to the product”.
A clinical routine within 4 to 5 years?
Functional MRI showed in nine patients a decrease in brain connectivity with areas of the brain known to be activated simultaneously in depressed patients. “ The Meopa session allows you to ‘turn off’ this brain network whose hyperactivity is synonymous with depressive suffering and ruminations,” explains the researcher. An 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 will also remain to fix the percentage of N2O in the mixture, the time and the number of exposure… Several randomized therapeutic trials should see the light of day in depressed elderly people but also in patients who present to the emergency room with suicidal thoughts. “ In four to five years, we should have enough elements on hand, I hope, to use nitrous oxide in clinical routine,” concludes Thomas Desmidt.
To note : according to a 2021 survey, 12.5% of people aged 18 to 25 had experienced a major depressive episode in the 12 months preceding the survey. The study highlighted an unprecedented acceleration in depressive episodes between 2017 and 2021. According to Inserm, characterized depressive disorder affects approximately 15 to 20% of the general population over their entire life and is characterized by a succession of characterized depressive episodes. . The risk of suicide is present in 10 to 20% of patients. Nearly 30% of patients are resistant to any form of pharmacological treatment.
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