In a recent study, the effectiveness of laughing gas (nitrous oxide) as a treatment for depression was tested. The study involved 20 patients with severe depression and was not responding to conventional treatment. The drug used for the test was half oxygen and half nitrous oxide. Two-thirds of the patients reported an improvement in depression symptoms after receiving the laughing gas, compared to the one-third in the placebo group. Although further research needs to be done on the effects of laughing gas, especially in the areas of longer term effects, but the results of this study certainty raises hopes for laughing gas to be a useful tool for relieving depression symptoms in a relatively immediate way. It is reasonable that a laugh-inducing substance can be used to treat a condition characterized by profound sadness as its main symptom.
Reference:
Nagele P et al. Nitrous Oxide for Treatment-Resistant Major Depression: a Proof-of-Concept Trial. Journal of Biological Psychiatry. 2014; 11:16.
2 replies on “Could Laughing Gas Be Used to Treat Depression?”
Do you have any information about adverse effects of laughing gas on people with bi-polar disorder and or schizophrenia>
Hi Robert, unfortunately we don’t have any information on that. However, you may be able to find something by searching key words on the UBC library website (library.ubc.ca) or Google Scholar (scholar.google.ca). Best of luck!
– Valerie