FDA: Anti-smoking drug Chantix linked to more than 500 suicides

[n2doc]

Tina Hurst was living what she considered a perfect life in her quiet neighborhood in suburban Chicago. She was happily married, the mother of two teenage girls and an executive at an insurance company.

Hurst also had a secret. She was a closet smoker, an on-again, off-again, pack-a-day habit she’d hidden from her family.

“I would quit for a couple of months and then I would start back again, so it was one of those periods where my family thought I was still not smoking, and I had started again,” Hurst said.

Hurst called her doctor, who suggested a prescription drug called Chantix, which is designed to help smokers quit by curbing the desire to light up. Hurst thought she’d found an easy fix. Wiithin a week, she quit smoking.

“I thought it was a miracle drug, you know?” she said.

As Hurst continued taking the drug as prescribed, her well-ordered life started coming unhinged and she began acting erratically. After her husband convinced her to throw the pills away, Hurst said she went over the edge.


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http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2013/11/21/fda-anti-smokingdrugchantixlinkedtomorethan500suicides.html

[Bluenorthwest]

1. My former so called doctor tried to push this on me. One of the reasons I dropped

her. 'I stopped smoking two months ago' I told her and she nearly forced me to take this shit. I told her it caused psychological problems in some people, she said 'I don't believe in that' as if science was a faith issue.
In two weeks it will be 6 months without a cigartette. Also no Chantix Death Pill.

[randome]

6. Sounds like you may have dodged a bullet!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]

[mainer]

2. long known to medical examiners

I attended a forensic pathology conference several years ago where this was discussed by ME's from around the country.

[slor]

3. I tried it a few years back...

and though I have contemplated suicide several times in my youth, that desire
was ramped up by chantix. I quit it after a few weeks.

[99Forever]

4. Well, depite what this very slanted...

... article says, Chantix is what finally made it possible for me to permanently quit after having tried almost everything else to end a decades long addiction to cigarettes.

I had no side effects, so I feel extremely fortunate.

[jsr]

5. "Ask Your Doctor" = "Be Our Guinea Pig"

[intaglio]

7. 2009 FDA put a black box warning about Champix and Zyban for this problem

Via Centre for Risk

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) conducted an analysis of post-marketing adverse effects reports received by the FDA. It concluded,

"Champix accounted for more reports of serious side effects than any other drug. Suicidal acts and ideation, psychosis, and hostility or aggression, including homicidal ideation, were the most prominent psychiatric side effects."

Any doctor denying a significant risk of increased suicidal ideation and action needs to be re-trained.

[Bonobo]

8. The environment of disgust aimed at smokers...

They are treated as slimy drug addcits and shamed for it.

That ain't exactly healthy behavior either... the shaming I mean.

[Progressive dog]

9. The warning on the box was added by the FDA in 7/2009

There are lots of drugs (most) that have side effects.
The FDA required a "black box" warning about suicide risks over 4 years ago. Continued use of nicotine is almost certain to cause harm.