User:Wyattlillie/sandbox

Depression
Recently, BTX-A has been suspected of having positive effects in combatting depression. The first experiment that confirmed the suspected link to Botox treating depression was conducted by a scientist by the name of Eric Finzi. He randomly injected 74 people with Botox and a placebo, and after six weeks 52% of the patients treated with Botox reported a decrease greater than 50% on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale, a scale used to help self-diagnose depression. Only 15% of the patients treated with the placebo reported a lower score on the MADRS scale. His conclusion was that just one treatment of Botox has a significant effect of reducing depression in individuals with major depression.

A subsequent experiment by Edwin Chapman from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that Botox may affect processes in the central nervous system away from the injection site. Chapman injected a fluorescent green form of the toxin into rats and observed that they found the toxin in other cells of the central nervous system quickly after injection. This experiment confirmed Eric Finzi’s conclusion that Botox enters the central nervous system, where it then likely blocks protein receptors responsible for depression.