“Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, has shown early promise as a potential treatment for severe depression in patients whose symptoms don’t respond to standard therapies,” stated a press release about a widely-reported study that was published in Biological Psychiatry. The press release also stated that over a third of the patients improved after being given air.
In the study, Washington University School of Medicine researchers identified 20 patients with “treatment-resistant clinical depression,” and alternately gave them laughing gas and “a placebo mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, the two main gases in the air we breathe.”
Of the 20 patients, 7 reported “mild improvement” and 7 “significant improvement” for a day after receiving the laughing gas, stated the press release. The researchers expressed hope that there would be more studies into laughing gas, and said they found it “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 press release also noted that, after receiving the air, five patients reported mild improvements, and two reported that they felt “significantly better.” However, one patient experienced worse symptoms the next day after receiving air. Conversely, the researchers wrote, “No patients said their symptoms worsened after treatment with nitrous oxide.”
Laughing gas studied as depression treatment (Washington University in St. Louis press release, December 9, 2014)
“Whip it, whip it good.” “Those were the days, my friend.”
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This is just re-packaged, re-branded William James. Why not go right to the source?
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/05/the-nitrous-oxide-philosopher/376581/
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Thanks for the link, Subvet416, as it’s quite relevant to my research and work. My work prior to being drugged was about multiple perspectives having value in understanding reality, my work after being drugged is about the same, my work while being drugged was about surviving alone. But the story of my drug withdrawal induced “psychosis” / awakening to my dreams was about a “collective unconscious” (multiple perspectives having value). Medical materialism is not valid science, according to numerous branches of science – psychiatry’s belief system is invalid.
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Someone Else,
Nitrous may be good for a few laughs or to make funny cars go faster, but not much else. I think you might like Robert S. DeRopp’s “The Master Game – Beyond the Drug Experience”. De Ropp was a biochemist who also studied with George Gurdjieff. Download his book and a wealth of other Gurdjieff-related materials here.
http://selfdefinition.org/gurdjieff/
http://selfdefinition.org/gurdjieff/Robert-S-De-Ropp–The-Master-Game.pdf
These videos are excellent. Enjoy!
http://selfdefinition.org/gurdjieff/video/
Start with this one. It is beautiful!
http://selfdefinition.org/gurdjieff/video/Gurdjieff%20-%20Meetings%20With%20Remarkable%20Men.avi
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Yes, I did have fun as a child at the dentist. I remember the nitrous oxide allowed my dental chair to seemingly do flips, it was a kick.
Thanks for the additional links, I’ll look them over when I get a chance, but I do appreciate them.
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Seriously? What’s next? Are they going to tickle you? The closer you look at psychiatry the more ridiculous it gets.
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