Botox Injections May Lower Anxiety

Previous research have shown that glabellar botulinum toxin (BoNT) injections enable decrease incidence of depression. A study not too long ago published in Nature showed equivalent added benefits for anxiousness.

Based on the theory that relaxing the facial muscle tissues used to express damaging feelings reduces the intensity of these feelings, the researchers decided to discover the connection involving BoNT injections and anxiousness.

The researchers pulled more than 15 million reports from the FDA adverse occasion reporting technique (FAERS) database, all submitted involving January 2004 and March 2021. The researchers excluded reports submitted by legal representatives, as properly as reports of patients taking antidepressants, anxiolytics, and antipsychotics, and reports of patients who had been comorbid with anxiousness and associated problems. They had been left with about 12.3 million reports.

The researchers analyzed situations exactly where patients received botulinum toxin for cosmetic use, migraine, eye spasm, neck discomfort, excessive sweating, drooling, and bladder problems.

Lower incidence of anxiousness and anxiousness-associated adverse events had been identified in patients who employed BoNT for cosmetic use (reporting odds ratios (ROR) .79, 95% CI [0.67, 0.93]), migraine — facial and head muscle tissues (.76 [0.64, 0.91]), spasms and spasticity — upper and decrease limbs, excluding facial muscle tissues (.68 [0.48, 0.98]), torticollis and neck discomfort — neck muscle tissues (.28 [0.17, 0.47]). The researchers identified no reports of anxiousness or associated anxiousness events in the sialorrhea group. The findings resemble a equivalent study on BoNT and depression.

The facial feedback theory might clarify the benefits in cosmetic and migraine patients, the researchers say. For blepharospasm, BoNT might have the opposite impact. The injections target the muscle tissues employed for smiling. Relaxing these muscle tissues widens the eyes and might thus market anxiousness. Another theory the authors present is that the peripheral action of BoNT initiates a chain of neurochemical and neuroplastic alterations that might be transmitted to remote web sites inside the central nervous technique.

Limitations of the study consist of the voluntary reporting nature of the FAERS database, which renders it incomplete. Missing demographic variables, remedy doses, and healthcare records, and unreported life events might have also impacted benefits. Despite these limitations, the researchers conclude BoNT shows guarantee as an anxiousness remedy.

“The anti-anxiety effect represents an advantage over the alternative treatment options, because anxiety disorders and related symptoms are a frequent comorbidity in the respective indications,” they stated. “Though there are effective pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments for these disorders, there is a need for further therapeutic options and BoNT may be one of them.”