Botox shows promise for fighting depression

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There is still no single answer to treating depression. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an estimated 1 in 10 adults report having depression, with 70% more women than men likely to experience it at some point in their lives.



Pharmaceutical companies are collaborating with universities and clinical research centers to look at a number of new and innovative treatments for depression. One recent and unique approach includes the use of Botulinum Toxin, more known as Botox.

We all know by now that Botox is an effective means for minimizing the signs of aging. It acts by temporarily paralyzing facial muscles, which relaxes facial lines that can form as a result of too many stressful and sad moments.

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A team of researchers led by Axel Wollmera and Tillmann Krugerb, based at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Switzerland and the Department of Psychiatry, Medical School Hannover, Germany, have indeed turned conventional thinking on its head. Their research, recently published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, found that injecting ‘botox’ into the muscles most linked with low mood, produces alleviation of depression.

Researchers are tracking this possibility closely and have seen results that point to Botox’s potential effectiveness in treating depression. According to some studies, even patients who didn’t see an improvement in their appearance experienced an improvement in their mood, but are they really feeling  better because they think they’re going to look better, or is Botox truly a promising breakthrough in the understanding of negative emotions.


Dr. Jason Black at Oregon Derma Center says facial muscles have been used to study depression for over a century. And a recent study in Germany confirmed what doctors had long suspected - that expressions not only communicate emotions to other people, they also regulate our own mood.

Researchers looked at 30 people with moderate to severe depression. After one single treatment those who got Botox saw their symptoms decrease by 47 percent. Patients who got the placebo only got 9 percent better.

To put it in simple terms, frowning makes you sad. Freeze those pesky lines between your eyes and your face can't tell your brain that you're blue.

Black admits it could be as simple as you look better, you feel better.

Though using Botox to treat depression is a relatively new theory, the popular looks-enhancing drug also successfully treats other diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy and migraine headaches.

Be careful though too many injections and your face will freeze! If you can’t move your forehead into a frown, you may not be able to empathize with someone else’s sadness like you would with a fully functional face. So, Botox may be turning us all into happier but less empathetic people, which is a bit...