| Botox users could be addicted, claims new study |
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| Monday, 18 September 2006 | |
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A study carried out by cosmetic surgeon Martin Kelly, of London Plastic Surgery Associates, and Dr Carter Singh, a psychologist based at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, surveyed clients at 81 UK clinics, comparing Botox users to people receiving other cosmetic treatment. The study highlights:
He said: "Botox has a good safety profile, but it also has potentially addictive qualities. "Botox changes the physical appearance of a person's skin or face, and that ultimately leads to improved body image. "This enhances psychological well-being. It is easy to see how people could become addicted." Simon Ourian MD of Epione, a US Botox authority who has one of the largest Botox practices in the world, said the study is nothing short of an irresponsible PR scheme, and the use of the word addiction downright bogus. "Addiction is medically defined as a chronic disorder that is characterized by the repeated use of substances or behaviors despite clear evidence of morbidity secondary to such use. A quarterly use of Botox, as it was described in the study, absent any serious side effects hardly meets the criteria for diagnosis of addiction," says Dr. Ourian. "A desire to look your best at all times is an inherent right of every individual. The findings have absolutely no connection to reality," said Ourian. "High patient satisfaction following treatment is not the same thing as addiction," he continued. Botox is a highly purified and much diluted form of the botulism bacterium, responsible for deadly food poisoning. It functions by blocking the transmission of acetylcholine from the nerves to the muscle. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter which send a message to the muscle telling it to contract or tense up. After Botox treatment, with the flow of acetylcholine blocked or significantly reduced, the muscle receives no contraction signals and so, it relaxes. As a result, the wrinkled areas smooth out and soften. However, the effect wears off after four to six months. The study comes in the wake of news that cosmetic surgeons in the UK are to be issued with a checklist when assessing patients, in an effort to identify those patients with an apparent addiction to cosmetic surgery. These patients, suffering from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), see themselves as unattractive, regardless of their actual appearance and experience a compulsion to correct illusory faults with their bodies. “There are people who develop a dependency on the support they appear to get from cosmetic surgery. Cosmetic surgery is potentially habit-forming,” said Adam Searle, the president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. “These people feel a sense of psychological wellbeing after one procedure and this fuels the notion that they would feel even better if they had another.” Patients with BDD are unlikely to be content with the outcome and may even blame the surgeon for making what they regard as a deformity worse. “These patients . . . will be surprisingly vague about what they believe to be wrong with the part of their anatomy they are unhappy with. They will say, ‘It is just not right’. |
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