Many NMDA antagonists are very potent antidepressants. They have cured people who didn't respond to any other antidepressant, and what's even more spectacular even, these people where cured almost immediately (where normal antidepressants take 2 to 4 weeks to have any effect).
Of all the potent NMDA-antagonists, N2O is probably the safest (there are NMDA-antagonists that are safer, but they are probably to weak to be usefull as an antidpressant). And it's legal in most countries.
The only difference between N2O and the NMDA-antagonists that are known to have these antidepressant effects, is it's short duration.

There have been so many people here recently, who where asking questions about antidpressants, that i think we could be doing some tests here.

IF laughinggas is an antidepressant, these effects should be noticeable immediately.
Maybe, because of it's short duration, it is not as effective as ketamine. But in that case, a few sessions should be sufficient.

So i thought of simply creating a poll. It should be fairly straightforward: either it works or it doesn't. Okay, there's no guarantee that placebo effects aren't part of it, if the results would be positive. But again: the effects should be pretty spectacular if it works and they should last for quite a while, so i don't know if placebo effects could be thát powerfull.

This could realy help people, if it works.

My anecdotal experiences would be of little use here. Although I may have been depressed in the past, my life circumstances have changed to the extent that I'm in an entirely different phase altogether. While the transition between these phases involved occasional use of nitrous oxide, it tended to be concomitant with a bunch of other substances and whole lot of life-enriching fun. We have little chance of extricating anything meaningful about the NMDA antagonising properties of N2O from that beautiful mess.

Due to its potential neurotoxic side effects & depletion of B vitamins in the CNS from over-use, I would argue that it isn't the safest one out there, but then again, there is no safe anything...

I would argue that changa and/or ketamine may be more useful in shell-shocking one out of a major depression, as I have found them to be of use for in past years. Alas, I wouldn't ever recommend that a depressed patient ingest copious quantities of nitrous oxide gas... this should be an option of last resort, only if innumerable other options have been exhausted.

There is a good cause to be made for the biochemical potential for it...

Taking L-Methionine, Methyl-B12, B-Complex w/ Folate, SAMe, Omega-3 oil (Hemp\Fish) and Lions Mane Mushroom before, during, and after a nitrous session is absolutely critical. The gas disable L-Methionine... L-Methionine is used in the body to bind to and activate B12. This causes the deficiency, along with actually depleting your B12 reserves. Methyl-B12 is the form that acts directly on nerves. Dosing high on B12 drives out the bio-availability of other B-vitamins, especially folate, so taking a B-Complex with 400-800ug of Folate is critical too. SAMe, Omega-3 Oils, as well as B12 + the other B-Vitamins are what is used in the creation and maintenance of nerves + the nerve's mylein sheathing in the body. Lions Mane triggers the release of BDNF and NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) which help combat these effects, too.

That being said....

In addition to the potential pharmacological action of it... The gas was traditionally used in conjunction with psychotherapy. Like with other psychedelic medicines, you can either choose to do "The Work" or not.

Really being honest with yourself on why you feel the way you do, the root causes of the pain you feel, past traumas, wrong-doings, childhood issues... Even the various things in the world that lead to feelings of apathy.... addressing these are absolutely necessary for self-development and utilizing The Gas to intentionally and actively reflect on these topics does have the potential to shift your perspective of them and help you truly heal your mind at the source by confronting and coming to terms with the root causes of your depression.

As they say, the darkness within will cease to exist, once brought, into the light of awareness.

Imo I did nothing for me but it works in makin other drugs better.
So if you use it to improve an LSD trip it prolly does more for depression than itself.

OK, i now googled a bit, using search entry's such as "N2O antidepressant", and it turns out that some serious research on this subject, already has been going on.

There where some articles on a study done at the washington university in st louis.
This is a link to an article that's dumbed down somewhat, so that people like me, who don't have a degree in medicin can understand it.

The study shows that N2O IS effective against depression. But in this study, it was less effective than ketamine. But the anesthesiologist in charge, peter nagele, says that this could have something to do with dosage.

From what i gather, testsubjects wheren't exposed to a dose high enough to produce any narcotic effects: 50% of the testsubjects where given a mixture of N2O, oxygen and nitrogen, and 50% where giving a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen only.
So, unless testsubjects in the controlgroup where being exposed to hypoxia, wich i don't think you would get permission for , it would have become clear immediately, wich person was getting the N2O, and wich person wasn't, if a narcotic dose of N2O would have been given.

So it likely was a very low dose of N2O. A higher dose would probably be more effective.

From what i've read, B12 depletion should only become a problem with prolonged exposure to N2O, and not with incidental use of it.

So from here on, i think the best thing to do, is to find an optimal dose. Maybe there is a dose that is too low yet, for B12 deficiancy to become a problem, but high enough to produce narcotic effects. This is because the antidepressant effect of ketamine was discovered by accident, with patients that where given ketamine as an anestheatic.

So it is plausible that, for optimal results, the dose of N2O should be high enough to have anastheatic effects.

I think this case study from 2020 is relevant to this conversation.

"Nitrous Oxide-Induced Vitamin B12 Deficiency Resulting in Myelopathy"

https://www.cureus.com/a...-resulting-in-myelopathy



It is not something I take part of, but I have seen some in our community use nitrous oxide quite a bit. Stay healthy friends and consider getting some B12 supplements to go with with your whippets if you use that. Cheers.

A couple of weeks back I tried my old nitrous trick and maybe it does actually work. But the thing is I'd let my usual plant craft fall by the wayside at that time so this mini binge succeeded in getting me back on track with harmalas, thus my previous disclaimer still applies even if I did finally vote 'Yes' on a whim.

A few months ago, I had an amazing experience. I did some ketamine and smoked a little changa with some spice crystal sprinkled on top, then did some nitrous cartridges after that. It was wonderful and absolutely had lasting positive effects on my mood over the next month or two. I actually saw/felt the N2O molecules sparkling on my tongue during the experience. I learned shortly after that the sweet taste of the gas is a feeling not an actual taste, the feeling of the gas molecules moving across your tongue. Sparkle gas.

I will say B12 supplementation is really important with N20. Apparently some people are genetically predisposed to be much more effected by the gas's methylation of B12. I had a friend who had a scary experience after a night of fun with some nitrous involved once. He only did two cartridges during the night, it was his first time trying it. Luckily I had known about that reaction because he was telling me he thought he needed to go to the hospital. He said his body was numb and twitchy feeling, and he had trouble standing walking with extreme confusion. I gave him a multivitamin high in B vitamins, and he said he started feeling better almost as soon as he took it.

This is interesting though. I do think N20 on it's own could have good antidepressant effects. I'm sure duration and dosage are important factors. I'm not always a huge fan of nitrous by itself, but I think it compliments other things very well (especially MDMA, DMT/changa, and ketamine).

It didn't work for me, only made me want to binge on it. Ketamine on the contrary did help, but only for a few hours after taking it, so I guess it was just the afterglow.

I would also argue against being the safest. After the binge I mentioned (multiple canisters for a few nights) I started feeling very weak and lightheaded, as if I had low BP, until several hours after the last hit.

Nitrous oxide is also a very powerful greenhouse gas and an ozone-depleting gas. Didn't know at the time. I don't know if recreational use is significant, but it has a long atmospheric half-life.

Good points. They can be addictive feeling, hence the nickname hippie crack. It is also a powerful greenhouse gas that depletes ozone. I don't know how significant occasional recreational use or amounts contribute either...or if there is something that happens inside the body that makes it less harmful in that regard. If not and millions more people started using them for antidepressant effects it could become more of an issue I'm sure.