A review by researchers from the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford in the UK has found that controlled doses of laughing gas (or nitrous oxide) really can provide quick-acting relief from depression.

The researchers found that administering the gas helped reduce depressive symptoms in as little as two hours. Relief was relatively short-lived, with symptoms returning within the week unless the dose was repeated.

“This study brings together the best possible evidence indicating that nitrous oxide has the potential to provide swift and clinically significant short-term improvements in patients with severe depression,” says clinical psychologist Kiranpreet Gill, from the University of Birmingham.

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
    22·
    4 天前

    Jokes aside, it’s interesting.

    If there’s a direct action, as in the chemical changing something inside on a physical level, that’s one avenue to look at for both treatment and better understanding of depression as a whole.

    If it’s psychological, indirect, then it’s still worth more study because that’s a valuable treatment by itself. But it also helps point towards avenues of understanding the underlying mechanisms of depression.

    There really aren’t many things that give even that short a relief from a single use.

      • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
        8·
        4 天前

        Yeah, I had oral surgery maybe ten years ago, with ketamine as part of the anaesthesia. Had a solid six month remission of depression.

        That was a literal trip too, though. Coming out of it, I was talking to celestial beings and such lol.

          • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            3 天前

            Honestly I feel the same about buspar but some people swear by it. I actually liked the wellbutrin a LOT it just also gave me terrible air hunger. I’ve wondered if the Dextromethorphan would counteract that.

            Lexidrugs (my employer’s pharmacy reference database) only references dyspnea (shortness of breath) specifically for wellbutrin with an incidence of ≥1%. Given that my air hunger never correlated to any outwardly observable signs other than mild tachycardia (no O2 changes), it’s safe to conclude the sensation was neuropsychiatric in origin / somatic anxiety. Both entries do also list the following incidences of adverse reactions relevant to anxiety:

            Wellbutrin (bupropion alone):

            • Agitation - 2-32%
            • Anxiety - 3-8%
            • Akathisia - 2% (I’m particularly sensitive to this side effect)
            • “jitteriness” - 3%
            • nervousness 4-5%

            Auvelity (bupropion + Dextromethorphan):

            • Anxiety 4%

            Now, Auvelity also has a much shorter list overall likely due to it being a much newer and therefore less studied medication. That said I’m seeing a much higher incidence of things like drowsiness with Auvelity (7%) vs Wellbutrin (2-3%). That suggests that the dextromethorphan IS offsetting the stimulating effect of the Bupropion. The question is whether it’ll hit me as a smooth buzz or a delirious haze. Given that the bupropion did improve my attention even with the air hunger I would hope it would be the former but I think I’d want to take a few weeks of vacation to see. Maybe next year.

            OH also: did you take wellbutrin or zyban? Brand name zyban was much more expensive than wellbutrin due to “officially” being approved for nicotine cessation. Although if it was super recent probably not because everybody just started giving their smoker patients wellbutrin off-label, which is one of a few ways doctors can just flip big pharma the bird, lol.

            • Icytrees@sh.itjust.worksOPM
              1·
              2 天前

              I was too tired when I wrote that. Vortiexone is my nothing burger. Wellbutrin has no noticable effect for me on it’s own and ramps up my anxiety if I’m on other stimulants.

              I haven’t looked at the clinical depression treatment doses of the cold meds turned brain meds yet, but maybe? It’s already a psych drug anyway that targets that reflex.

              I make a point of not looking up drugs I’m trying, I take notes instead and compare later with my psyche. Right now it’s a mix of Adderall, duloxetine and abilify, which work pretty well for me as a triad but none of them do much for me individually, even 20mg of adderall is like a couple coffees.

              Brains are fucking weird.

              You know those hipster Speakeasy’s with some prodigal bartender who mixes your favorite drink? I imagine there’s one of those somewhere with a mustachio’d psychopharmacologist in a rustic leather apron, who takes one look at you before he starts tossing ingredients into a mortar, with flourishes and puns. He’s got a vintage copper pill press that spins on a motor, flinging tablets he catches in a green glass bottle, pops the cork stopper and hands you your ~perfect drug~

      • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
        6·
        4 天前

        And dextromethorphan, or DXM (the active ingredient in Robitussin). Not clinically proven, of course, unlike ketamine, but a lot of dissociatives seem to have the effect.

    • Peruvian_Skies@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 天前

      The only one I can think of off the top of my head is ketamine treatment. Also lasts about a week before it gets worse, though as time goes by “worse” becomes less intense.

    • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
      11·
      3 天前

      If a hit of nitrous oxide is all it would take to knock someone out of a dangerous depressive episode long enough to get some treatment, that’s a huge win.

  • CouldntCareBear@sh.itjust.works
    171·
    4 天前

    I was sure this was an onion article…

    But anyway, kinda interesting that the laughing gas high lasts minutes but they’re talking about anti depressive effects laying days. So something is going on more than just getting high.

    • Icytrees@sh.itjust.worksOPM
      18·
      4 天前

      I can speculate since I have chronic, treatment resistant depression, and I’ve done one or two (hundred) whippets in my day — Being super depressed makes it difficult to remember what it was like to be happy. If it goes for a while I start to doubt if I ever really enjoyed anything. Small moments of joy are something solid, good and recent to hold onto. Little things definitely elevate my mood when shit gets dark.

      • Dasus@lemmy.worldM
        12·
        4 天前

        I’ve done kilos and kilos of laughing gas.

        Your theory is actually correct, but idk why whippits work, since it’s not mainly serotonergic. More dissociative.

        Ecstasy and shrooms and lsd etc are purely serotonergic (affecting the serotonin system) whereas things like coke, speed, etc are dopaminergic. Some are ofc both, like basic meth. That’s why ecstasy and shrooms don’t have as many addicts, as serotonin isn’t similarly addictive as dopamine.

        Well not to get too technical.

        Anyway you are right. Emotional memory is much like the context of a smell. Right now, you can imagine some strong smell you like, like fresh asphalt, mowed grass, first gf/bf smell. But if you actually smelled it, you’d unlock so many more memories.

        So like happiness, you know what it is, you know you’ve had it, you can basically imagine it and pretend you have it, but unless you actually get out from feeling depressed, you genuinely can’t access the memories of times when you were happy instead of bored/depressed. That’s why depression is so impossible to beat alone, because it’s literally self-feeding when you can’t remember being happy and then aren’t because you can’t.

        And all it takes is friends coming to pick you up and have a nice day with you, or if that isn’t enough, maybe some medication like two whippits.

        Or maybe convince both and go have a nice night out with friends whole doing them.

        And if you haven’t friends, just get some ecstasy and go to a club/rave/party and male some.

        But… I say that. And I do believe it’s pretty much as simple as that. But something being simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. So because I’m depressed and can’t remember being happy either, I don’t actually believe going to make some friends would help. Even though I kinda know I’d like that on ecstasy.

        But then that comes back to “drugs and hotels and whatnot are expensive”.

        And they say “money doesn’t buy happiness.” It absolutely does, upto around 100-150k/year. After that it has little to no impact. Wouldn’t know but that’s what the studies say.

        Anyway that’s prolly why the whippits works, even though it doesn’t make one happy necessarily (although it definitely can, the name is no exaggeration) it at least frees you from the context of being depressed and mind isn’t “locked” anymore in that sweet zone for a minute or two.

          • Dasus@lemmy.worldM
            4·
            4 天前

            Well, actually, yes, but try to do it responsibly and (or) use low risk drugs.

            Ecstasy (as long as it’s MDMA or something like that and not mixed with a lot of speed) and laughing gas are actually really low risk drugs. So are shrooms and LSD.

            • Icytrees@sh.itjust.worksOPM
              2·
              4 天前

              I’ve done 14/20.

              I do appreciate your information posts as a fellow explainer and source-provider.

              Hey, I haven’t looked at your history or know anything about you beyond these two posts, but how’d you like to help mod this place?

              I’ve got !Independent_Media@lemmy.today too, if you prefer something classier.

              • Dasus@lemmy.worldM
                1·
                4 天前

                Sounds good man, happy to help.

                And very nicely taken as a fellow explainer indeed, sometimes people think I’m like mansplaining to people who I know already know most of the things I’m saying, but nah, it’s just good, especially when discussing drugs, to be on the safe side to avoid misunderstandings.

                • Icytrees@sh.itjust.worksOPM
                  3·
                  4 天前

                  I’ve got gaydar for mansplainations as an angry feminist. You’re good.

                  I will do absolutely no background check. Welcome to the team. Post more drug stuff if you like, I’m always looking for articles on popular pubmed and APA reports.

    • Dasus@lemmy.worldM
      5·
      4 天前

      Beer is a depressant in the long run.

      Just because you’ve been convinced that “there’s always a price” doesn’t mean it’s true.

      Otherwise what’s the point of any fucking medication.

      Alcohol doesn’t offer instant relief from depression or annoyance. It offers a tiny relief to how you’re feeling at the moment some minutes after you’ve take it, and the effect doesn’t last. The only thing beer immediately relieves is thirst, and that’s not because of the alcohol in it, but the water.

      It’s not the same with laughing gas.

      I believe the antidepressive properties are to do with its dissociative nature. That’s why ketamine works as well. And yeah, you can get addicted and abuse either one. Still, it’s dumb saying “beer does that for me”.

  • Psythik@lemmy.world
    44·
    4 天前

    Yeah no shit, but it also wears off in under a minute unless you go full Steve-O and hit one charger directly after another until you pass out, straight from the canister. But even if you kill a case in a single sitting, that’s still not even an hour’s worth of fun before you’re sober and depressed again.

    That said, it is a really good, safe high, but please read up on proper use cause there are still ways to pass out and suffocate yourself if you forget to breathe actual air in between hits (never try it standing up and never put a plastic bag over your head to extend the high!). The psychedelic properties are fun, however there are no visuals; it’s all mental. But because the euphoria is so strong, there’s no “bad trip” ever. It’s called hippie crack for a good reason. I recommend trying it at least once.

    • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
      9·
      3 天前

      Did you know there’s actually more text than just the headline? Posts like these have links you can use so you can read the article. All it takes is one little tap or click and you too can have the faintest clue what the article is about before commenting on it!

    • Icytrees@sh.itjust.worksOPM
      12·
      4 天前

      This is about a controlled setting and they recorded lasting positive effects on mood for a week afterward.