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Repeated Botox treatments improve glabellar lines at rest

Patients with mild glabellar lines at rest achieved elimination of the resting lines following repeated Botox treatment, according to recently published study results.

Alastair Carruthers, MD, of the department of dermatology and skin science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and colleagues extracted data from a 1-year repeat treatment measurement including two 4-month randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind clinical studies followed by an 8-month open-label study.

Alastair Carruthers

There were 225 patients (85% women; age range, 35-45 years) with at least mild glabellar lines at rest, with a Facial Wrinkle Scale (FWS) score of 1 or more who completed both portions of the study and received three treatments of 20 U Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA, Allergan plc) 4 months apart.

Elimination of glabellar lines at rest (FWS score = 0) on any days 7, 30, 60, 90 and 120 after treatment was used to define response.

“The likelihood of significant response was as follows: for all subjects combined (OR = 1.31), for subjects with mild resting lines at baseline (OR= 1.49) and for older women (≥ 55 years) with mild resting lines at baseline (OR = 2.22),” the researchers wrote.

Of all the patients, 76% responded after one treatment, while 45% of patients responded in all three treatment cycles.

Among the patients who did not respond after the first treatment, 25% to 52%, based on baseline severity of FWS score, responded to the second or third treatment.

“This work extends the analysis the authors presented previously in which they showed that 68% of subjects with glabellar lines at rest who were treated once with onabotulinumtoxinA achieved elimination of their resting lines compared with only 5% in the placebo group,” the researchers wrote. “In the current analysis, one-quarter to one-half of subjects who did not respond after the initial treatment of onabotulinumtoxinA responded after the second or third treatments, with most subjects responding to all three treatments.”  – by Bruce Thiel

Disclosure: The study was sponsored by Allergan plc. Carruthers reports being a consultant for and receiving research grants for Allergan plc, Merz Pharmaceuticals, GmbH and Revance. Please see the full study for other researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.