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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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Anti-Smoking Chantix, Zyban Pose Suicide Risk: FDA

Smokers with mental illnesses should avoid them, agency says

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(Newser) – The Food and Drug Administration is warning smokers about serious mental-illness risks of two smoking-cessation drugs, as reported suicides among their users increase. Chantix and Zyban must now carry the agency’s strongest warning label, the New York Times reports. The FDA isn’t trying to scare patients, an official says: “You should just be careful.”

The FDA has documented 100 successful suicides and twice as many suicide attempts among users of Pfizer’s Chantix since 2007. Users of GlaxoSmithKline’s Zyban exhibit a similar trend, though to a much lesser extent. It’s unclear why the drugs affect mental health. Nicotine withdrawal is a possibility in some suicide cases, but others involved patients who hadn’t yet stopped smoking.

Chantix and Zyban, must carry the FDA's strongest safety warning over side effects including depression and suicidal thoughts.
Chantix and Zyban, must carry the FDA's strongest safety warning over side effects including depression and suicidal thoughts.   (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, file)
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Stopping smoking is a goal we should all be working towards. We don’t want to scare people off from trying a medication that could help them achieve this goal.
- Curt Rosebraugh, director of
an FDA drug evaluation office

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drlarrymitchell
Jul 1, 09 5:09 PM CDT
Death is the only successful way to quit smoking- these guys were just trying to help it along. Reply
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DAB
Jul 1, 09 5:21 PM CDT
I'm not familiar with Chantix (never even heard of it). But Zyban is just a different dosage of Wellbutrin (bupropion), which is an antidepressant. And antidepressants for some people, especially teenagers, can (counterintuitively) raise the risk of suicide. Reasons are unclear, but I would have thought that the NYT story would have at least made this connection. Reply
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daveand42
Jul 1, 09 6:23 PM CDT
Chantix worked for me. I think I may have tried them all, including Zyban. Every time I would quit, regardless of method, cold turky, whatever, it was so freaking excruciating that yea maybe suicide would help. Like the first poster says, death may be the only fool proof way to quit. Chantix did give me the forewarned weird dreams. I guess for some people the goofy dreams might be disturbing, but for me they were entertaining, really more a plus to me than a minus. Cigs are a terrible addiction, and if I were king, the evil tobacco companies would pay all expenses for quitting: drugs plus downtime reimbursement plus an all expenses trip to a remote staffed resort island somewhere for the duration. They should be totally responsible for getting people clean, whatever it takes, they are pushers and pimps. My 2c. Reply
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BeatBlaster
Jul 1, 09 7:08 PM CDT
Does it pose a suicide risk because people keep smoking after they take it? It can't work for everyone. At least not as intended. Reply
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fancygapva
Jul 1, 09 8:50 PM CDT
Stopping smoking, period, can make one suicidal or homicidal. Chantix blocks dopamine receptors (pleasure pleasure pleasure) so all of a sudden you don't want cigarettes but nothing is pleasurable. Absence of pleasure equals severe depression in some people. Zyban/Wellbutrin partially blocks the receptors. I took it and stopped smoking so easily that I would start again because it was so easy to stop. It was also a slight "upper." This time I quit smoking and then quit taking the Wellbutrin so I know how hard it would be to quit again, and that seems to have worked. Reply
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