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Empty canisters of nitrous oxide
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Laughing gas may be most associated with its use in dentistry, but in recent years, scientists have been inching toward using the chemical for another purpose: depression that defies treatment. The results of a small trial, published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, suggest that a low dose of laughing gas could help improve depressive symptoms in patients with a severe form of depression that fails to respond to antidepressants.
Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis found that a low dose of nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, was just as effective at improving depression as a higher dose in patients with treatment-resistant depression, with less adverse side effects after two weeks. Either dose relieved symptoms more than placebo. A larger trial is planned to confirm the results.
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People over 65 shouldn t take three or more medicines that act on their brain and nervous system, experts strongly warn, because the drugs can interact and raise the risk of everything from falls to overdoses to memory issues.
But a new study finds that 1 in 7 people with dementia who live outside nursing homes are taking at least three of these drugs.
Even if they received the drugs to calm some of dementia s more troubling behavioral issues, the researchers say, taking them in combination could accelerate their loss of memory and thinking ability, and raise their chance of injury and death.
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