Second Nature Care Blog

Nitric Oxide Laughing Gas for Depression - Second Nature Care

[fa icon="calendar'] Jan 23, 2015 10:00:00 AM / by Dr. Isadora Guggenheim

Laugh your depression away.  Second Nature Care cares.

What's so funny about depression?  Nothing, but you might be able to laugh it away.Do you need a psychiatrist or a dentist or a naturopathic physician to treat your depression?  You might need all three.  Nitrous oxide or laughing gas has shown rapid antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant major depression. 20% of treatment-resistant depression patients got good clinical responses and 15% went into depression remission. That's no laughing matter.

Naturopathic physicians can test your neurotransmitters to create an intelligent treatment protocol. Our ozone patients say that they experience better moods and sleep after ozone inhalation treatments. 

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Ketamine, AKA special K on the street, is another rapid acting therapy for severe clinical depression that has gained popularity in the psychiatric research field. Nitrous oxide is the new proof-of-concept study that gave sustained results for 24 hours and up to one week in some patients.  This is good news because Nitrous oxide is more benign than Ketamine.   

How does it work?

Both Ketamine and Nitrous oxide inhibit N-methyl-D-aspartate or NMDA.  Nitrous oxide is an NMDA receptor antagonist.  Patients in the study either got 1 hour inhalation therapy with a mix of 50% nitrous oxide/50% oxygen or 50% nitrogen/50% oxygen. Those who got Nitrous oxide had significant improvement in their symptoms of depression two hours and 24 hours after receiving treatment plus a carryover effect one week later compared to the placebo group.  

Nitrous oxide went above and beyond the placebo effect.  There was some nausea and anxiety near the end of the 1 hour treatment and resolved after the therapy stopped.  Researchers predicted that lower doses could be given without any noticeable effects and or treatment can be discontinued at any time so patients can recover quickly.   

Nitrous oxide, a gas, leaves no trace in the body 10 minutes after treatment unlike Ketamine which is metabolized in the liver.  Even though the gas is gone the treatment effects persist.  

Nitrous oxide is non-addictive.  Ketamine can cause hallucinations and delusions. 

Caution: Nitrous oxide can inactivate vitamin B12 when the drug is repeated in a short time span.  Chronic oxide abusers can have megaloblastic anemia and myelopathy.  

Nitrous oxide treatment does not treat the root cause of depression, but may provide a safe alternative to other pharmaceuticals in the treatment of depression while your Naturopathic physician is finding all of the pieces to your puzzle.  

If you're in my area, make sure to book your dental exam with Dr. Robert Zitofsky at Dynamic Dental Arts of Rockland (845) 947-3200.  Ask for the "laughing gas".  

Topics: Mood Disorders

Isadora Guggenheim, ND, FNP, RN, MS, CNS, LMT, owner of Second Nature Naturopathic Care, LLC
For all appointments: Tel: 845 358-8385 Fax: 845 358-2963 drguggenheim@msn.com