The Many Uses of Botox
Botox has become a welcome and necessary addition for many people who work at keeping their appearance youthful. That’s what cosmetic plastic surgery is all about and why it is a thriving industry today. The introduction of Botox as a cosmetic facial enhancement in 2002 brought forward a whole new trend in the world of aesthetic body enhancement. For a comparatively cheap price, a consumer can receive Botox injections that will smooth and soften lines around the mouth and contribute to a more youthful face. It’s a temporary fix: Botox loses its effectiveness in from three to nine months and the treatment must be repeated to achieve the same results.
Despite the fact that Botox requires repetitive use, statistics suggest that its popularity is staggering. In 2007, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons the most popular cosmetic surgical procedure was breast augmentation, which was performed almost 350,000 times. Botox injections in that year were in excess of 4.6 million!
What many people don’t know about Botox (botulinum toxin) is its medical roots.
• In the 1950s scientists discovered that the active ingredient in Botox can relax overactive muscles.
• In the 1960s doctors began to use Botox for the treatment of strabismus (crossed eyes).
• In 1988, Botox manufacturer began clinical trials for this and other medical uses.
• In1989 the FDA approved botulinum toxin to treat blepharospasm (eyelid spasms) and strabismus (crossed eyes). Also in 1989, Allergan copyrighted the name Botox for its products, various strains of botulinum toxin.
• In 2000 the FDA approved Botox for the treatment of a neck muscle spasm affliction known as cervical dystonia (CD).
• In 2002 the same formulation is approved as BOTOX Cosmetic, the injections that changed facial makeovers.
• In 2004 The FDA approved BOTOX to treat severe underarm sweating when antiperspirants don’t work. Other medical uses are still being explored.
And in 2006, a psychologist and a cosmetic surgeon undertook a small clinical study to test the efficacy of Botox in treating clinical depression. The theory was that Botox relaxes the muscles that create frown lines between the nose and brow and around the mouth; that perhaps facial expressions can drive emotional reactions and not the other way around; and that depression is in effect a state of mind and not a disease with biological triggers.
A doctor selected ten female patients who were being treated for chronic depression and gave them Botox injections. All the women met the standards for ongoing major depression, based on their responses to standardized depression surveys. Seven of the 10 patients had tried one or more antidepressants, and four had been treated with psychotherapy. Two months after treatment, nine of the ten women reported that their symptoms of depression had been lifted.
Based on this report, several stories ran in the mainstream press about Botox perhaps having powerful properties that can help patients who have fought depression for years. There were also some commentaries from psychiatrists and others in the field suggesting that the evidence gathered in this experiment was anecdotal at best. Criticism was focused on the tiny group of participants, on the fact that there was no comparative group receiving a placebo and because the results of the treatment were reported by the patients themselves.
There seems to be no information readily available since May of 2006, when this report was issued, that reflect continued experimentation with Botox and psychological ills. And it is difficult to believe that the adage “smile and the whole world smiles with you” contained in a muscle relaxant can accomplish what major advances in antidepressant development and therapy cannot.
There is some fairly solid evidence of genetic predisposition to depression that also contraindicates the validity of Botox as a healer of depression. It was a cheerful idea, but it’s also a good guess that many of the women in that study were back on antidepressants before too many more months passed.
