Chantix, Suicide, and the Point of Prescription Drug Warnings
Quick poll: Think back to the last time you bought a prescription medication. Did you read any of the information about the drug printed on the papers inside the box? And if you did read it, did that stop you from taking the drug?
I can’t recall a time when I read any of that fine print, despite the fact that I’m fascinated by medicine and often write about it. I got thinking about the potency (or impotence) of these warnings this week while reading about a controversy surrounding Chantix, a drug that helps people quit smoking.
Chantix (Pfizer’s branded name for varenicline) works by stimulating nicotine receptors in the brain, thus curbing cravings for cigs. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug in 2006. Since then, a small percentage of people who take Chantix have reported neurological side effects, and serious ones: depression, psychosis, erratic behavior, even “feeling like a zombie.” The drug has been linked to more than 500 suicides, 1,800 attempted suicides, and the bizarre death of an American musician. Here are a few anecdotal reports about the drug from a Reddit thread:
- Chantix was the most miserable drug I have ever taken…severe gi distress, depression, paranoia, crazy and vivid dreams, etc. BUT, it got me off cigarettes after everything else I tried had failed…As I knew that it really fucked with you I prepped by temporarily getting rid of the guns and having my brother check up on me daily…What keeps me from going back to smoking is knowing that one day I’ll want to quit again, and I NEVER want to experience Chantix again!!!
- I’m convinced Chantix played a part in my divorce. My ex gave up smoking, her Pepsi habit, as well as marriage.
- My mother was on it (and successfully quit smoking using it) and she had some outrageous paranoia. She would accuse us of conspiring against her, making her sick, not loving her, lying to her, stealing things (that she misplaced), turning the dog against her (da fuq??), trying to poison her and sabotaging her car…she smoked for 40 years and failed at quitting hundreds of times. Chantix did the trick somehow but made her nuts.
Yikes! Reading stories like that might scare me enough to think twice about the drug. But would the information in the package insert?
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