# Botox and emotions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 25, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845 "2011-06-25T20:49:11Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/1 "2011-06-25T20:49:11Z")
Has anyone else read about the recent study which showed a direct connection between botox injections in the muscles controlling facial expressions and a person’s ability to both express emotion and empathize with others’ emotions as well? The aspect of expressing one’s own emotion I think was already known or suspected but the empathy aspect was groundbreaking. I think this is fascinating and it opens the door for all kinds of future scientific and medicinal possibilities.
[http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F37861005%2Fns%2Fhealth-skin\_and\_beauty%2Ft%2Fbotox-paralyzes-your-emotions-too%2F&ei=nEkGTvucJYaXtwePrbm6DQ&usg=AFQjCNH\_JVvo8-wtZluaepbg2CxzBXLtPg](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F37861005%2Fns%2Fhealth-skin_and_beauty%2Ft%2Fbotox-paralyzes-your-emotions-too%2F&ei=nEkGTvucJYaXtwePrbm6DQ&usg=AFQjCNH_JVvo8-wtZluaepbg2CxzBXLtPg)
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/2 "2011-06-25T21:29:02Z")
I could see future soldiers getting doses of some medicine with this stuff injected to become emotionless killing machines. Or treating people, kids, with psychological or emotional disorders like bipolar disorder and others.
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/3 "2011-06-25T22:06:05Z")
Don’t you think it might be that people who get Botox injections are simply self-absorbed and lacking in empathy _before_ the Botox?
It takes a lot of vanity to allow somone to stick needles in one’s face, for no good reason in the first place.
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### Author:  [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/4 "2011-06-25T22:11:44Z")
> [@picunurse](#):
>
> Don’t you think it might be that people who get Botox injections are simply self-absorbed and lacking in empathy _before_ the Botox?
> It takes a lot of vanity to allow somone to stick needles in one’s face, for no good reason in the first place.
LOL, I hadn’t thought of it from that perspective…might not be so mysterious after all!
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/5 "2011-06-26T22:49:05Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#):
>
> I could see future soldiers getting doses of some medicine with this stuff injected to become emotionless killing machines. Or treating people, kids, with psychological or emotional disorders like bipolar disorder and others.
Even assuming it worked, why would making kids emotionless help with bipolar? Sounds like it would introduce a bunch of new problems.
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/6 "2011-06-27T01:17:54Z")
I get Botox for migraines and I dread it when the appointment comes up. I would never do it for vanity alone.
Ow!
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### Author:  [@kpoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kpoe)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/7 "2011-06-28T08:29:05Z")
From what I know this study is not 100% sure, they are still working to see if botox really affects a person’s ability to express emotion or empathize. Until now I haven’t heard about someone complaining about this…did you?
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/8 "2011-06-28T18:15:45Z")
See: [James-Lange theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James-Lange_theory) and [Duchenne de Boulogne](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchenne_de_Boulogne).
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### Author:  [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/9 "2011-06-28T20:35:31Z")
A few years ago I underwent Botox injections for TMJ brought on by a med I was taking. I wouldn’t say I was emotionless, but I never had any elevated moods (I don’t mean that in a ramped up sense – I’d be sad, let’s say, but I’d never cry). I always attributed that to the med, but now I wonder if the Botox had something to do with it…
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### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/10 "2011-06-28T20:50:03Z")
> [@picunurse](#):
>
> Don’t you think it might be that people who get Botox injections are simply self-absorbed and lacking in empathy _before_ the Botox?
> It takes a lot of vanity to allow somone to stick needles in one’s face, for no good reason in the first place.
Yes, I do think that, but there’s also this:
[QUOTE=LiveScience article]
Davis and his Barnard colleague Ann Senghas led a team of researchers who showed people emotionally charged videos both before and after they were injected with either Botox, or Restylane — a substance injected into lips or facial wrinkles that fills out sagging skin. Restylane was used as a control because it simply adds filler but doesn’t limit the movement of muscles.
Compared with the control group, the Botox participants “exhibited an overall significant decrease in the strength of emotional experience,” the researchers wrote in a paper published in the June issue of the journal Emotion. In particular, the Botox group responded less strongly to mildly positive clips after they had the injections than before the Botox.
[/QUOTE]
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/11 "2011-06-29T01:05:26Z")
> [@Poysyn](#):
>
> I get Botox for migraines and I dread it when the appointment comes up.
I never heard of that but I can see how it would work. Where do they stick you? I’d get it in the muscles in the base of my skull.
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/botox-and-emotions/586845/12 "2011-06-29T02:19:30Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> I never heard of that but I can see how it would work. Where do they stick you? I’d get it in the muscles in the base of my skull.
I get a few in each eyebrow, some in the forehead, along the hairline, temples (especially in the right side), and YEP at the base of the skull in the neck.
All told, it comes to over twenty individual shots.
It makes a pretty big difference though. It doesn’t prevent the headaches, but it does make them easier to get rid of - they respond better to the meds. You do lose some facial movement and get the smoother forehead. I can’t scowl quite the same way, but I try not to scowl too much anyway. I don’t want to hijack this anymore, if you want to know anything else, you can PM me.
🙂