Can Botox Help Your Mental Health?

1. Can Botox Help Your Mental Health? Studies have shown something very interesting about everyone’s favourite wrinkle-blocker. Although Botox is known to reduce emotional expression, this can actually be beneficial to people struggling with depression that are resisting regular treatment. What is Botox? Botox is made from a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum, which can release a neurotoxin that – when injected into the skin – can paralyse underlying muscles. This was originally used in 1980 to treat eye disorders and other health conditions but is most notably known now for preventing the skin from wrinkling. The skin treatment lasts up to 6 months and can be done in 10 minutes with no surgery or invasive face-lifting treatment necessary. It’s a quick and easy process and therefore is a massively popular anti-ageing phenomenon that has over 6 million treatments administered worldwide. How can it affect mental health? Although it sounds strange, the act of paralysing depressed people’s muscles can prevent them from frowning and generally looking unhappy, which therefore makes them less unhappy. In a study within the Journal of Psychiatric Research, Georgetown Medical School took 74 patients suffering with major depression and conducted an experiment involving Botox. Half of the patients were given the botulinum toxin to paralyse some facial muscles, and the other half were given a saline injection – a placebo. The results were quite fascinating. Roughly six weeks after their first injection, 52% patients that received Botox showed improvement in their depressive state, and only 15% of the patients given placebos showed improvement in their mental state. From these studies we can assume that the Botox halted the facial expressions linked with negative thoughts, as those expressions can send signals to the brain and make the patients feel worse. 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.” What else can Botox do? Depression isn’t the only thing Botox can help in treating, the bacterium has been used since the 20th century to help with multiple health issues such as the following: strabismus (crossed eyes), Blepharospasm (spasm of the eyelids), overactive bladders, chronic migraines and even excessive sweating. This is due to the ability to paralyse muscles, which can be applied to multiple bodily situations. Botox wasn’t always even used for human use, it began in the 1970s being used to experiment on monkeys. But since then, it not only helped countless health problems but was approved in 2002 to be used for cosmetic purposes and by 2006 was the most popular cosmetic treatment in the United States of America, being used for its most famous use – anti-ageing. We can thank Botox for many things. Not only has it assisted in finding new and innovative treatments for people suffering with depression, but it’s helped with a huge range of health issues

2. extending from that. But mostly the human race thanks Botox for helping us get rid an enemy we can all bind together to fight: wrinkles. Article source: http://superhealingbook.com/can-botox-help-mental-health/ https://www.beautyresource.org.uk/beautician-articles/botox https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/botox-fights-depression/ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/slightly-blighty/201509/can-botox-treat-depression-facial-expression-can-cure-you https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/opinion/sunday/dont-worry-get-botox.html http://www.journalofpsychiatricresearch.com/article/S0022-3956(13)00356-7/abstract