Study: Botox Erases Wrinkles, Maybe Emotions Too

A new study suggests that the muscle-paralyzing cosmetic injections called Botox could also rob you of your full range of emotions.

“With Botox, a person will have less movement in the facial muscles that have been injected, and therefore less feedback to the brain about such facial expressivity,” wrote the study’s co-author Joshua Davis, a psychology professor at Barnard College.

The study was published in the journal Emotion.

Dr. James O’Toole, a Pittsburgh-area plastic surgeon, told Channel 4 Action News anchor Michelle Wright that he questions the study.

“To make a true association with a change in emotions, you really would need to do a large study with one arm getting a placebo, the other arm getting one of the neurotoxins, and then comparing validated tests for emotional screenings, pre- and post-procedurally,” O’Toole said. “Only then could you make the statement. But in our experience, patients are — by and large — exceptionally happy.”

O’Toole said experts don’t use Botox to eliminate the ability to show emotion, and it’s rarely used around the musculature of the mouth.

“In our hands — and this is not a clinical study — people in general are quite content, because they’re happier with how they look,” O’Toole said. “And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if they’re happier with how they look, they carry themselves lighter on the foot, if you will. People like to look nice.”

O’Toole also suggests going to someone who is well trained, because if you get too much Botox or get it in the wrong area, you won’t look natural — and he says that could make you feel bad because you’ll look bad.

Source:  June 22, 2010 http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/23995575/detail.html