Welcome back to Reading the Research! I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects to share with you. Along the way I discuss the findings with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today’s article is about this new laughing gas treatment for depression. It looks to me like a new fad, to be honest, or perhaps simply a stopgap measure. Depression commonly occurs in overstressed, exhausted, or chronically ill autistic people. It’s also more and more common in the overall population. The incidence rate in autistic people is higher than the overall population, but both rates continue to rise.
I’ve had some things to say about “treatment-resistant depression” before. Very quickly, the only treatment they’re saying didn’t work was drugs. Because “throw pills at it” is the basic response doctors are giving most conditions now. There are a lot of problems with this, but I’ll spare you the rant. Suffice it to say depression can also be treated with proper nutrition, supplementation, regular movement and exercise, changing one’s diet away from ultraprocessed convenience foods, and a host of other, shockingly ignored options.
A Temporary Solution?
So, nitrous oxide, or laughing gas. I mostly recall this substance from the dentist, and even then, I don’t think I experienced it much. I mostly recall misery and anesthesia in my dental experiences. However, it didn’t take long for me to find a scientific paper warning against any use of nitrous oxide. And another that informed me that repetitive use was a poor plan, and yet another that suggested repeatedly using this gas can reduce the body’s ability to process vitamin B-12, which is important for making DNA and keeping your nerve and blood cells healthy. Insufficient B-12 can lead to megaloblastic anemia as well.
As such, I really wouldn’t expect this laughing gas treatment for depression to replace anti-depressants in the short or long term. More likely, it will come to compete with microdoses of ketamine as a stopgap measure. Like ketamine, it can be given quickly and relatively easily to a suicidal person in major distress. And like ketamine, the results are quick and last for enough time to get slower and more permanently useful measures, like therapy and social supports, into place.
Treating Depression
Please make no mistake: depression has causes. Some of them are psychological or trauma-based, but some are biochemical in nature. If you eat convenience and ultra-refined food, you will feel like trash. If your work or hobbies don’t involve much movement, that hurts your body. Chemical additives in our food, cookware, plastic items, etc. get into our systems and stay there, gumming up the metaphorical works. The burden of unhealthy environments and choices adds up, and the brain suffers. Sometimes that suffering is experienced as depression.
Will fixing your diet, adding in movement, and using safer products cure every type of depression? Of course not. It will help, though, and it’ll make the therapy and social supports more effective. And it gets closer to treating the cause of the problem than popping some pills (that often do not work) or routinely breathing a gas that we already know has significant long-term effects.
At the end of the day, we already know what treats depression best: therapy paired with a healthier lifestyle and improved social supports. Drugs can sometimes help, but they often cause as many problems as they solve. Laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, is no true solution for curing depression.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter! There are links and comments on studies that were interesting, but didn’t get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
realisticautistic 