WASHINGTON - Kathleen Delano had suffered from depression for years. Having tried psychotherapy and a number of anti-depressant drugs in vain, she resigned herself to a life of suffering.

In 2004, her physician injected five shots of the toxin into the muscles between Delano's eyebrows so the Glenn Dale, Md., woman could no longer wrinkle her brow. Eight weeks later, according to a study published this month, her depression had lifted.

"I didn't wake up the next morning and say, 'Hallelujah, I am well, I am healed,' " she said in an interview, but she noticed changes. "I found myself able to do the things I hadn't been doing. I feel I broke out of the shackles of depression to be in the mood to go out, to reconnect with people."

The pilot study of 10 patients is the first to provide empirical support for what a number of clinicians say they have noticed anecdotally: People who get their furrowed brows eliminated with Botox (botulinum toxin A) often report an improvement in mood.

Until now, the assumption was that they were just feeling better about their appearance. But the new study by dermatologist Eric Finzi suggests something else might be at work. Finzi found that even patients such as Delano, who were not seeking cosmetic improvement, showed a dramatic decrease in depression symptoms.

"Maybe the frown is not just an end result of the depression; maybe you need to frown in order to be depressed," Finzi said. "I don't think it has anything to do with making you look better. These patients were not coming to me for Botox; they were coming because I was offering a new treatment for depression."

Some patients in Finzi's study were receiving other treatments for depression; Finzi required that there be no change in those treatments for three months before the Botox.

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