Botox and mood: It's a good thing

Billy Crystal had a character he played on Saturday Night Live back in the day who used to say "If you look good, you feel good darling" or something like that. Turns out, it's true, and even something like Botox can help according to a study just out in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. Doctors at the University of Cardiff, in the U.K., evaluated mood in 25 subjects who received Botox to the worry lines between the eyebrows. The patients showed significantly less negative mood by standard measures, as compared to a control group. Specifically, subjects were less irritable, depressed, and anxious. This has actually been studied before and these results confirm those earlier findings.
There is more to this than might appear at first glance. The authors of this study point out that facial muscles are not just involved in expressing emotion, they are involved in the experience of emotion as well. The muscles between the eyebrows (called "corrugators") convey concern, anger, and worry. By relaxing them with Botox, the experience of these emotions seems to be lessened through a sort of biofeedback loop. An interesting question is whether this is also related to the effect of Botox in lessening the frequency and severity of migraine headaches for a large number of people. In any case, there is something to smile about.