I, on the other hand, had a terrible anxiety reaction to laughing gas that kept me awake for two days......
The team, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, reports the findings of their proof-of-concept study into the effects of laughing gas on severe, treatment-resistantdepression in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
They believe it is the first study where patients with depression have been given nitrous oxide or laughing gas, a fact that lead researcher Peter Nagele, assistant professor of anesthesiology, remarks on:
"It's kind of surprising that no one ever thought about using a drug that makes people laugh as a treatment for patients whose main symptom is that they're so very sad."
The study involved 20 patients with severe depression whose illness was not responding to conventional treatment.