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Laughing gas can treat severe depression

Published

10 years ago

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Washington: Used as an anesthetic in medicine and dentistry, nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, may also help treat severe depression in patients whose symptoms do not respond to standard 0, finds a research.

“We believe therapy with nitrous oxide eventually could help many people with depression,” said principal investigator Peter Nagele, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The pilot study is believed to be the first research in which patients with depression were given laughing gas.

In 20 patients, who had treatment-resistant clinical depression, the researchers found two-thirds experienced an improvement in symptoms after receiving nitrous oxide.

Although the researchers evaluated the effects of the treatment only twice over a 24-hour period, they found the results encouraging.

Laughing gas is attractive because its side effects are limited and the most common are nausea and vomiting. It also leaves the body very quickly after people stop breathing the gas.

That is why researchers believe the improvement in symptoms a day later is real and not a side effect of the nitrous oxide.

“It is 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 are so very sad,” Nagele said.

The study appeared online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

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Corona

Covid toll in Karnataka is a worrying sign for state government

Published

3 years ago

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May 4, 2022

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Even though Karnataka recorded the lowest number of Covid deaths in April since the virus struck first in 2020, the state is recording a rise in the positivity rate (1.50 per cent). Five people died from the Covid infections in April as per the statistics released by the state health department. In March, the positivity rate stood around 0.53 per cent. In the first week of April it came down to 0.38 per cent, second week registered 0.56 per cent, third week it rose to 0.79 per cent and by end of April the Covid positivity rate touched 1.19 per cent.

on an average 500 persons used to succumb everyday in the peak of Covid infection, as per the data. Health experts said that the mutated Coronavirus is losing its fierce characteristics as vaccination, better treatment facilities and awareness among the people have contributed to the lesser number of Covid deaths.

During the 4th and 6th of April two deaths were reported in Bengaluru, one in Gadag district on April 8, two deaths were reported from Belagavi and Vijayapura on April 30. The first Covid case was reported in the state in March 2020 and three Covid deaths were recorded in the month. In the following month 21 people became victims to the deadly virus, and May 2020 recorded 22 deaths. The death toll recorded everyday after May crossed three digits. However, the third wave, which started in January 2

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