The success of ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic and non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, as a rapidly acting antidepressant has ignited efforts to identify other novel depression treatments. In recent years, several clinical trials indicated that nitrous oxide (N2O), an inhalational dissociative anesthetic in clinical use for over 150 years, also has rapid and...
BACKGROUND: Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a non-competitive inhibitor of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) that appears to have ketamine-like rapid antidepressant effects in patients with treatment resistant major depression. In preclinical studies, ketamine enhances glutamate-mediated synaptic transmission in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. The present study examined effects of N2O on glutamate transmission...
Human studies examining the effects of the dissociative anesthetic ketamine as a model for psychosis and as a rapidly acting antidepressant have spurred great interest in understanding ketamine's actions at molecular, cellular, and network levels. Although ketamine has unequivocal uncompetitive inhibitory effects on N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) and may preferentially alter the...