Posted by Kendall Raine on June 19, 2001 at 11:08:40:
In Reply to: Re: STEVE- Meyer-Overton hypothosis posted by Steve on June 16, 2001 at 16:09:46:
Steve;
See my post to MHK on this. If oxygen reacts with inert gasses to create a mixed gas which is narcotic in directional proportion to the FO2, as Bennett suggests, is oxygen narcotic? Is it different if oxygen simly serves as a catalyst for the narcotic properties of inert gasses? To me, it's unclear. Put another way, does the presence of the inert gas change the way oxygen reacts intracellularly? Could oxygen be "narcotic" in the presence iof inert gas? I don't know. If your definition of oxygen being narcotic turns exclusively on whether oxygen alone at 1.6 or 2.0 ata produces narcosis, then Chapter 7 of Bennet supports your position. To a practioner, like me, the issue is relevent in the context of oxygen's relationship to inert gasses and whether I'm more or less impaired with one mix versus another at depth. This has direct implications for the question of when to use Nitrox and when to use Trimix.
Seems to me the issue of whether oxygen alone is narcotic is of more interest to an anaesthesiologist. Or an argumentarian.