Botox Can Mess Up Your Ability To Feel Emotions

Filed in archive Consumer Alert , Studies on June 24, 2010

© Vancouver Laser & Skincare Centre

According to statistics provided by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, botox injections were the number 1 nonsurgical cosmetic procedure performed in 2009.

Now, according to a new study reported in the journal Emotions, aside from giving you smooth wrinkles and limited facial expressions, botox injections may also dampen your ability to feel emotions.

Botox injections smooth wrinkles by paralyzing the wrinkles-causing underlying muscles. In this new study, participants who received Botox injections have self-reported less emotional response to some emotional video clips, thus not being able to feel their emotions quite as deeply...

As compared to their counterparts who received treatment with a wrinkle filler called Restylane, instead. Restylane does not paralyze the muscles, instead it restores volume to facial folds and wrinkles.

While more research work is needed, in the said study, researchers wanted to prove the facial feedback hypothesis -- a hypothesis suggesting that our facial expressions can affect our emotional experience.