(STUDY FINDS) – For some patients battling depression, standard treatments and therapies simply aren’t enough. Now, a new study finds a mix of oxygen and nitrous oxide — better known as laughing gas — can help these individuals quickly wave goodbye to their mental health troubles.
Researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say small doses of the colorless gas rapidly improve symptoms of depression in a single session. People who suffer from anxiety and depression, two of the most common mental health issues worldwide, generally take antidepressants to ease their symptoms. However, these medications can take weeks to take effect, with up to a third of cases resulting in no improvement at all.
“A large percentage of patients don’t respond to standard antidepressant therapies — the patients in this study had failed an average of 4.5 antidepressant trials — and it’s very important to find therapies to help these patients,” says study author Professor Charles Conway in a university release. “That we saw rapid improvements in many such patients in the study suggests nitrous oxide may help people with really severe, resistant depression.”
