Posted by Kendall Raine on June 15, 2001 at 13:19:21:
In Reply to: Re: STEVE- Meyer-Overton hypothosis posted by MHK on June 15, 2001 at 11:05:54:
Mike;
You may be on to something. I don't know. It's inutive that the lipid solubility implications of inert versus metabolic gasses could be different. Something I know for certain is that I'm not stoned to the bone at 1.6 ata of 100% O2. Does this mean O2 is non-narcotic? It depends. For example, if O2 reacts with other gasses, inert or metabolic, to highten narcosis, is O2 narcotic? Is this different if O2 simply acts as a catalyst for other gasses? If O2 is simply a catalyst, then I wouldn't say O2 is narcotic, per se. I would assume, however, no narcotic benefit from elevated FO2. Is this just semantics? At the physiologists level, no. At the partitioner's level, (yours and mine), probably.
You'll recall this whole thing started with my assertion to Tim that using EANx 25 at 160 was more narcotic than using air. I still believe that conclusion is supported by Bennett. Steve took issue with the idea that oxygen was more narcotic than nitrogen. Given the difficulty of defining really what that means, the issue, to me, is unresolved.