There's a lot of Botox used around the world from sweating to headaches to wrinkles.
Here's a graphic from a Botox story on CNN.
In the hunt to discover the next blockbuster medical use for Botox, doctors have injected it experimentally into muscles and glands all over the body, making it medicine’s answer to duct tape. According to recent medical journals, physicians have used it to treat chewing problems, swallowing problems, pelvic muscle spasms, drooling, hair loss, anal fissures and pain from missing limbs.
“We see it as a molecule that keeps on giving. As we understand it more, it gives us new ideas of how to use it,” says Dr. Mitchell F. Brin, a neurologist who is the chief scientific officer for Botox at Allergan, the drug’s maker.
No other therapeutic agent “has so many demonstrated uses,” he says.
But some health advocates worry that doctors are widely adopting novel uses for Botox before federal guidance and rigorous clinical studies have established safe and effective dosages for the new treatments.
“It’s trial and error with a nerve poison,” says Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, the director of the health research group at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. Last year, the group petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require a warning label for injectable toxins.
