Botox Could Help With Depression, Study Shows

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Botox may not be just another treatment for a pretty face.

A new study shows it could help people who are depressed, WCBS 880's Sophia Hall reported.

The study, conducted on 74 patients by a cosmetic dermatologist and a college psychiatry professor, will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Dr. Stewart Levine, of Bayside, Queens, told Hall that about half of the severely depressed people who were not on medication were given Botox injections in their faces, while the other half received a placebo of saltwater injections. Levine is not one of the study's authors.

"Their depressions symptoms were 50 percent less in the patients that received Botox, and only like about 9 percent less in the patients that received saline, showing that these muscles are actually feeding back to the brain and the muscles are telling the brain that, 'Well, OK, we're not making frowns anymore. We're relaxed, so you should be relaxed, too,' and making people feel better," Levine said.

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