Is Botox The New Antidepressant?

Botox jabs could lift your appearance and your mood – and not because you look 10 years younger. Natasha Patch investigates.

- Natasha Patch

Botox is widely lauded as a drug for smoothing wrinkles – and making Mickey Rourke look more and more like a Thunderbird. But today researchers are trialling Botox as a potential cure for depression.

According to Beyond Blue, around one million Australian adults suffer from depression and two million from anxiety each year. With 10 per cent of the population taking antidepressants, Australia has one of the highest uses in the world.* But they don’t work for everyone. Professor Philip Mitchell, head of the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales, says that because patients suffer side effects including weight gain, nausea and decreased libido, they are searching for effective alternatives.