Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
Addiction monitoring centers are warning about the misuse of laughing gas, which has been booming since 2019, with an increase in neurological or cardiovascular damage to users, often very young.
The French association of addictovigilance centers is once again sounding the alarm about nitrous oxide or “laughing gas”.
This product is intended for medical use for its anesthetic and analgesic properties, in order to allow a doctor, for example, to suture a wound without this act being too painful for the patient. But its use has been diverted as a drug, the effects of which would be scalable: “from euphoria to anxiety and high” report the press release.
Consumption often daily and in large quantities
“In 2021, use disorders (addiction) and/or consumption of high and/or daily doses are present in nearly 90% of addictovigilance cases“, further indicates the association. Prof. Caroline Victorri-Vigneau, head of the Pays de Loire addictovigilance center in Nantes, in charge of monitoring nitrous oxide, specifies that “high” consumption was evaluated by their services to the tune of 20 cartridges consumed per day, an “out of the ordinary” consumption that has repercussions on the health of these young people.
An exploding number of cases
Most of the cases concern young people whose average age is 22, but in one case out of ten, it is a minor. “The number of cases assessed by the addictovigilance network has multiplied by 10 since 2019 and the number of serious cases is also increasing“, explains Professor Caroline Victorri-Vigneau.
“We have gone from 47 reported cases in 2019 to several hundred today. And yet, a ban on the sale of these products to minors came into force in 2021! But it is clear that we do not really see the effects” adds the specialist.
Consult a GP online
Serious health consequences
In addition to this increase in notifications from health professionals, addictovigilance centers note that the consequences for users have also worsened. Anxious, psychotic psychiatric symptoms and behavioral disturbances are usually reported. With larger quantities consumed, appear other serious complications, in particular cardiovascular. Between 2020 and 2021, these are “several cases of thrombotic effects which are reported (acute coronary syndrome, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis) often favored by hyperhomocysteinemia secondary to a vitamin B12 disorder induced by nitrous oxide“The association further indicates. In 2020, 134 cases of misuse of nitrous oxide were reported to poison control centers in France, according to the ANSM.