Botox Fights Depression

See Inside

The wrinkle treatment prevents face muscles from registering negative emotions

By Tori Rodriguez

Image: CORBIS

• 

  Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

  Read More??

A common complaint about wrinkle-masking Botox is that recipients have difficulty displaying emotions on their faces. That side effect might be a good thing, however, for people with treatment-resistant depression.

In the first randomized, controlled study on the effect of botulinum toxin?known commercially as Botox?on depression, researchers investigated whether it might aid patients with major depressive disorder who had not responded to antidepressant medications. Participants in the treatment group were given a single dose (consisting of five injections) of botulinum toxin in the area of the face between and just above the eyebrows, whereas the control group was given placebo injections. Depressive symptoms in the treatment group decreased 47 percent after six weeks, an improvement that remained through the 16-week study period. The placebo group had a 9 percent reduction in symptoms. The findings appeared in May in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Study author M. Axel Wollmer, a psychiatrist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, believes the treatment ?interrupts feedback from the facial musculature to the brain, which may be involved in the development and maintenance of negative emotions.? Past studies have shown that Botox impairs people's ability to identify others' feelings, and the new finding adds more evidence: the muscles of the face are instrumental for identifying and experiencing emotions, not just communicating them.

This article was originally published with the title Botox Fights Depression.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=4bb64af7dc4e57bbc460420f123722d3

marines urinating haley barbour olivier martinez peoples choice awards 2012 ford recalls robert kardashian chicago weather forecast