Epilepsy Talk
Treating depression is no laughing matter. Or is it? | February 7, 2024
When you think of treating depression, your mind often goes to antidepressant pills, pills, and more pills. Sometimes all for naught.
According to research published in the World Journal of Psychiatry, up to 15% of people diagnosed with depression don’t respond to traditional medication.
And around 35% say that antidepressants only offer partial relief from widely available treatments, highlighting the need for medication that works in different ways.
Now, groundbreaking research points to a new possibility.
It blew my mind. I think it will astound you, too.
Believe it or not, laughing gas is the answer.
Nope, I’m not kidding.
You might have been given laughing gas (nitrous oxide) during a dental procedure, or even while giving birth.
It’s a mild sedative gas that slows down the nervous system and dulls pain, making patients feel more at ease and less inhibited.
Despite its “laughing gas” reputation, patients who receive such a low dosage actually fall asleep.
Enter Ketamine.
“Like nitrous oxide, ketamine is an anesthetic, and there has been promising work using ketamine at a sub-anesthetic dose for treating depression,” says Dr. Nagele, a co-author of this study and professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at The University of Chicago.
They’re not getting high or euphoric, they get sedated.”
“The effects after a single administration lasted for a whole two weeks,” said Dr. Nagele.
“This has never been shown before. It’s a very cool finding.”
The study, found that a single inhalation session with 25% nitrous oxide gas was nearly as effective as 50% nitrous oxide at rapidly relieving symptoms of treatment-resistant depression, with fewer adverse side effects.
It also found that the effects lasted much longer than previously suspected, with some participants experiencing improvements for upwards of two weeks.
This could be a game-changer for the many people who don’t respond to other antidepressants.
Individuals who don’t respond to at least two different antidepressants — who, by and large, tend to be women and older people — might be diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression.
Some had tried an average of 4.5 different antidepressants and had had depression for 17.5 years on average!
“One thing has become clear, especially after the success of ketamine: It is necessary to find different mechanisms of changing brain function in patients with depression,” Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, director of the Center for Depression Research and Clinical Care at UT Southwestern Medical Center, told NBC News.
“What has been developed by drugmakers in the past 25 years is not sufficient.“
While it remains challenging to get non-traditional treatments for depression accepted in the mainstream, researchers hope that these results, and other similar studies, will open the minds of reluctant physicians toward the unique properties of these drugs.
“These have just been pilot studies,” said Dr. Nagele.
“But we need acceptance by the larger medical community for this to become a treatment that’s actually available to patients in the real world.
Most psychiatrists are not familiar with nitrous oxide or how to administer it, so we’ll have to show the community how to deliver this treatment safely and effectively.
I think there will be a lot of interest in getting this into clinical practice.”
With broader public acceptance, Nagele hopes that these results can open doors for those patients who are struggling to find adequate therapies for their depression.
“There is a huge unmet need,” he said. “There are millions of depressed patients who don’t have good treatment options, especially those who are dealing with suicidality.
If we develop effective, rapid treatments that can really help someone navigate their suicidal thinking and come out on the other side — that’s a very gratifying line of research.”
To subscribe to Epilepsy Talk and get the latest articles, simply go to the bottom box of the right column, enter your email address and click on “Follow”
Resources:
https://www.livescience.com/laughing-gas-treats-depression.html
Tags: antidepressant, breakthrough finding, depression, ketamine, laughing gas, nitrous oxide, treatment resistant depression
2 Comments »
Leave a reply to chezzal Cancel reply
About the author
Epilepsy Talk 
Wow! Cool! Thanks for the info, it will help.
Now If only we could find a miracle like this for seizures too
LikeLiked by 1 person
Comment by Russ — February 7, 2024 @ 9:51 AM
Yes, that’s so true! Positive there’s a ‘cure’ out there already 😊🍀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Comment by chezzal — February 7, 2024 @ 11:06 AM