ArticleScientific reports2020
Postmarketing safety surveillance data reveals antidepressant effects of botulinum toxin across various indications and injection sites.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and Safety of Botulinum Toxin vs. Placebo in Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Modulation of amygdala activity for emotional faces due to botulinum toxin type A injections that prevent frowning.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Botulinum Toxin for Chronic Migraine: Beyond Headache Reduction and Toward Possible Cognitive Benefits.Toxins · 2026Review
- Botulinum Toxin: An Unconventional Tool for the Treatment of Depression?Brain sciences · 2025Review
- Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA) mechanism of action.Medicine · 2023Article
- Botulinum neurotoxins: Future innovations.Medicine · 2023Article
- Review
- Mood symptoms in cervical dystonia: Relationship with motor symptoms and quality of life.Clinical parkinsonism & related disorders · 2023Article
- Intraoperative abobotulinumtoxinA alleviates pain after surgery and improves general wellness in a translational animal model.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Botulinum Toxin in Facial Aesthetics Affects the Emotion Process: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2022Review
- Treatment of Depression with Botulinum Toxin.Toxins · 2022Review
- Postmarketing safety surveillance data reveals protective effects of botulinum toxin injections against incident anxiety.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Common osteoporosis drug associated with increased rates of depression and anxiety.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The World Health Organization estimates the number of people suffering from depression to be over 264 million. Current monoamine transmission modulating therapeutics, even with proper adherence and acceptable tolerability, are not effective for nearly one third of the patients, leading clinicians to explore other therapeutic options such as electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, ketamine infusions, and, more recently, glabellar botulinum toxin, BoNT, injections. The scale and mechanism of antidepressant action of BoNT is unclear and maybe hypothetically attributed to the disruption of proprioceptive facial feedback reinforcing negative emotions. Here we verify the antidepressant effect of botulinum toxin by analysis of over 40 thousand BoNT treatment reports out of thirteen million postmarketing safety reports in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System, FAERS. The results of the analysis indicate that patients who received BoNT injections to treat hyperhidrosis, facial wrinkles, migraine prophylaxis, spasticity, and spasms, had a significantly lower number of depression reports when compared to patients undergoing different treatments for the same conditions. These findings suggest that the antidepressant effect of BoNT is significant, and, surprisingly, is observed for a broad range of injection sites.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.