A July 30 paper in Scientific Reports reveals that botulinum toxin (BoNT) injections can alleviate symptoms of depression. Tigran Makunts, et al, analyzed more than 40 thousand BoNT treatment reports out of 13 million post-marketing safety reports in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). They found that patients who received BoNT injections to treat hyperhidrosis, facial wrinkles, migraine prophylaxis, spasticity and spasms had a significantly lower number of depression reports than patients undergoing different treatments for the same conditions.
The authors noted: “The scale and mechanism of antidepressant action of BoNT is unclear and may be hypothetically attributed to the disruption of proprioceptive facial feedback reinforcing negative emotions…These findings suggest that the antidepressant effect of BoNT is significant, and, surprisingly, is observed for a broad range of injection sites.”
Read the full study here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-69773-7
