Botox injections as a cure for Depression?
New research suggests that Botox isn’t just good for reducing wrinkles and the signs of ageing — it may also help patients cope with a major depressive disorder that has so far proved unresponsive to antidepressant medications.
In the first randomized, controlled study on botulinum toxin, researchers gave the first group of participants a single dose of Botox in an area just above the eyebrows, (the frowning muscles) while the other group received a placebo.
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. If the brain recognises we are not frowning, which many of us are without even realising, the chemical for happiness is released – which has an overall effect of a happy mood and therefore decreasing a depressive state.
Many of our clients have reported a lift in there mood following treatment, so not only do they look great, they also feel great – this is due to not only the client’s new and aesthetically improved look but also on a chemical level; the happy hormone being more prevalent within the body.
Botox has many other wonderful uses when used in safe and professional hands, treatments help to stop excessive sweating, migraines and muscle tension. For further information please call 01803 864407,
