Skip to content
Surprising Science —

Forcing a Smile: How Botox Helps Relieve Depression

Los Angeles dermatologist Eric Finzi has published two studies suggesting that Botox injections can relieve symptoms of depression by keeping the face from expressing sorrowful or painful emotions.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

What’s the Latest?

Los Angeles dermatologist Eric Finzi has published two studies suggesting that Botox injections can relieve symptoms of depression by keeping the face from expressing sorrowful or painful emotions. The second study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, was coauthored with Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a professor of psychiatry at Georgetown Medical School. “The study found a 47 percent reduction in scores on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale among those injected with Botox. The members of the control group, who were injected with saline, exhibited a 20.6 percent reduction.”

What’s the Big Idea?

Expressing emotion, it turns out, is an important part of experiencing emotion. A phenomenon known as the facial feedback hypothesis holds that because your face is such a sensitive area of the body, it communicates information to your brain about how you feel. “The idea is that you’re not just frowning because you’re sad; you’re also sad because you’re frowning. Emotions aren’t emotions at first; they’re thoughts, and the physiological reactions to those thoughts shape and magnify how we feel.” This is also true of empathy, however. Without the ability to express sorrow at another person’s sorrow, you may feel indifferent to their suffering. 

Read more at Pacific Standard

Photo credit: Poznyakov/Shutterstock

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next