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Here's a more complete reference for the Hamilton et. al. paper which has cropped up here lately. "Does Oxygen Contribute to the Narcotic Action of Hyperbaris Air?" D. Linnarsson, A. Ostlund, A. Sporrong, F. Lind, C. M. Hesser & R. W. Hamilton. Dept of Baromedicine, Karolinska Institutet, S-104 01 Stockholm, Sweden and Hamilton Research, Tarrytown, USA. International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine Joint Meeting on Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine August 11-18, 1990 Amsterdam, The Netherlands Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society/European Undersea Biomedical Society Session T1 - Gas Physiology, Abstract #281. I was only able to find the abstract which appeared in the UHMS journal, Undersea Biomedical Research, supplement to volume 17, 1990. I guess you need to find the proceedings if you want the paper. The abstract follows. Greg Ryan gregr@cs*.su*.oz*.au* ---- Although not a biochemically inert gas, oxygen has a lipid solubility which is almost twice that of N2, and O2 may therefore exert an narcotic action apart from it biochemical effects. We determined psyhomotor and mental performance impairments during exposures to air and to normoxic N2-O2 mixtures at 6, 8.5 and 11 bar ambient pressures in 10 subjects. In this pilot study 3, 3 and 4 subjects were studied at 6, 8.5, and 11 bar respectively, and N2-O2 and air exposures were not randomised. Over-all mental and psychomotor performace was impaired by up to 40% at the highest ambient pressure as compared to control at 1.3 bar breathing air. Despite a substantially lower N2 partial pressure in the hyperbaric air experiments, performance was impaired to the same degree as in the corresponding N2-O2 experiments. It thus seems that substituting O2 for some of the N2 does not ameliorate the mild narcosis. Within the limitations of the experimental design our results suggest that O2 contributes to the narcosis of hyperbaric air.
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