From: davidc@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (David Cake)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Re: Nitrous Oxide
Date: 5 Oct 92 05:37:34 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: tartarus.uwa.edu.au

berger@atropa (Mike Berger) writes:

>davidc@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (David Cake) writes:
>>SIDE EFFECTS/TOXICITY- very few. It seems pretty safe if used sensibly.
>>It is teratogenic (will damage a fetus) so AVOID if pregnant. If used
>>for huge lengths of time over many days, it causes vitamin B12
>>deficiency which can result in pernicious anaemia (which can lead to
>>permanent nerve damage), but beware if you have low B12 intake (ie
>>vegans). It kills fast developing cells (ie fetus) so can cure cancer

>>	I can get real references for all this (and more information),
>*----
>Please do.  I have a collection of journal articles on nitrous oxide,
>and none of them mention these problems.
	Lancet, Vol.2 no.8102, 9 Dec. 1978, pg 1227-1230,
Myeloneuropathy after prolonged exposure to nitrous oxide.
	--the B12 deficiency. Doesn't look like a real problem without
very heavy use or very low B12 levels.
	Lancet, Aug12, 1978, pg339-342, Megaloblastic hemopoiesis in
patients receiving nitrous oxide.
	--B12 metabolism
	Anaesthesiology, 1978, Dec67(6) 960-964, 
	--sorry, havn't got the title, this is about teratogenic effects
in rats.
	Anaesthesia, 34, 1979, pg147-151, 
	--nitrous hazardous for patients with ear surgery or ear
disease. Forgot to mention this problem in the previous post. Does not
appear to be a problem if your ears are healthy. 
	Seminars in Surgical Oncology, 1990, 6(3), 141-147
	--cancer, cause or cure? Havn't read this one (not in the local
library).
	Abuse of volatile substances, information paper 2, (Australian)
Commonwealth Department of Health, Drugs of Dependency branch, 1984,
	--this is a great reference, a small booklet on N2O, patterns of
abuse, obtainability, toxicity and side effects, etc. Probably difficult
to get outside of Australia, but worth trying for.
	Acta Anae. Scand. 1985 29 pg 635-638, 
	--study on volunteers looking at acute tolerance, subjective and
objective observations.
	
Could you post some of your references?	
And here are some things that you might want to look up, that we havn't
been able to find (if you do, please email me something about it)
	Review of inhalants: Euphoria to Dysfuntion, Sharp, C.W. and
Brehm, M. L. (editors), NIDA research monograph no.15, U.S. Government
Printing Office, October 1977 
	--this contains two articles, Abuse of Inhalation Anaesthetic
drugs, by M.B. Chenoweth, and Preclinical Behavioural toxicology of
Inhalant solvents, by R.E. Bowman, that are probably worthwhile.
	American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology, 
	1988, Mar 9(1), pg 60-63, Death by nitrous oxide: an interesting
case of auto-eroticism
	--sounds amusing.
	1989, Dec 10(4), pg 330-331, 
	--another suicide case
	
We also have heaps more references that we havn't tried to hunt up (from
the bibliographies of the other articles, and from Index Medicus).
	A good search in your local medical library (in the nearest
med school?) should find a few references fairly easily. A good text
book on anaesthetics is recommended, or a good bookon effects of
psychoactive drugs.
					
>--
>	Mike Berger
>	Department of Statistics, University of Illinois
>	AT&TNET     217-244-6067
>	Internet    berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
							Dave Cake
							Karen 
							Margaret