Question on Chantix

[spaky]

I keep seeing all the commercials that they flood tv with and I keep wondering about their success rate. In the ads they say that 44% of users were quit between weeks 9 and 12 compared to 18% on sugar pill. Now I'm wondering exactly what that means. If a person made it to week 9 but started back up in week 10 is that part of the 44%? Also is it really that great of an accomplishment for a drug to be a little over twice as effective as a sugar pill when it's known to cause suicidal thoughts and actions?

 

[Katmar]

Their figures are WAYYYYYYYYY overrated. The rate is much, much lower, but I don't know the exact amount. And their ads spend more time warning about side effects that actually promoting the drug.

 

[dgriego]

I tried it. It did nothing but make me have crazy dreams and I felt "wierd". No suicidal thoughts but just wierd.

I did not like it and felt like it did nothing for my nicotine cravings.

 

[kristin]

I researched this for one of my articles: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2161819/negative_reactions_mystify_electronic.html?cat=5

The success rate may be 44% during the 12 weeks using the drug, but the actual success rate is 1 in 4 after discontinuing the medication. That means a 25% success rate ie. 3 out of 4 people go back to smoking once they finish the treatment. And that's only of those of the 44% who actually complete treatment.

So, actually 1/4 of the 44% succeed after completing treatment, which actually gives it an 11% success rate. Definitely better than the 5-7% rate of gums and patches, but about the same or worse than cold turkey.

It had a very depressive and irritating affect on my husband. At the time, about 2 years ago, we hadn't heard about the side affects or that you shouldn't take it if you have any depression - which my husband suffers from mild depression and panic attacks. It was so bad, I told him to start smoking again! Then we found e-cigs. Those still aren't enough for him, he needs the other tobacco alkaloids, so he suppliments with snus.

The thing is, some people smoke, because they are unwittingly self-medicating for depression or other mild mental disorders. When they quit, they are basically stopping their meds and just nicotine isn't enough and Chantix is even worse.

 

[YKruss]

The success rate may be 44% during the 12 weeks using the drug, but the actual success rate is 1 in 4 after discontinuing the medication.

Does {1 in 4} means that actually it is 11% success rate?

Edit: Kristin beat me with the math

 

[jlmanno]

When I tried Chantix about 6 months ago all of the information(advertising) I read also tried to push that 40% success rate. I didn't succeed with it nor my wife due to the extreme nausea, but by then they had already gotten close to $400.00 over the 8 weeks we took it. According to my pcp and the actual clinical trials the number of smokers that stayed smoke free for 6 months dropped to under 30% and smoke free a year was around 18%. I do know a couple of smokers that used it and succeeded. There was a group of about 20 of us family and friends that tried different methods to quit. 2 succeeded with chantix, 5 of us now vaping and the rest still smoking, maybe new years or I can try converting them to vaping. That would be great. I've tired through the years everything available, ecigs were certainly my savior. The chantix advertising hype does include those quitters that went back to cigs in week 10 etc. Like my doc told me the chantix may help but it was going to have to be a mental thing along with the pills. He was amazed recently when we discussed my PV, i now have 2 of his staff vaping!

 

[jlmanno]

I failed to mention in my percentages as Kristin and Ykrus mention that it is the percentage of smokers that completed taking the medication not total people that tried it, the total success rate is more accurately around the <10% rate

 

[kristin]

Does {1 in 4} means that actually it is 11% success rate?

Edit: Kristin beat me with the math

Sorry, I edited and added to my post a few times, lol!

 

[spaky]

Wow! So does the 11% or less success rate mean that the sugar pill is just as effective? With that rate the ecig should be able to smoke chantix for helping people quit cigs.(pun intended)

 

[a2dcovert]

Chantix is an anti-depressant. I have seen the poor success rate in my friends that have tried it. It has had some radical side effects in some people. There is no way to know how it will react to you until you take it. There is a limited number of days that you can use this drug. Most of my friends were ok while taking the drug but returned to smoking soon after stopping the Chantix.

 

[HighHeeledGoddess]

I tried it - the stuff is evil, in the not cool ways! I was glad I did not quit while taking it, because I felt horrible when I stopped. I was sitting in my little corner at my PC, shaking and chain smoking. I kept telling myself, "it's going to be ok, it is just the meds wearing off, its going to be ok....."

The best I can describe the feeling is being that of one of having shear panic, but I was aware nothing bad was actually happening. I knew I was just sick from the meds. I would advise everyone and anyone I come across to AVOID this product. Even the pharmacist that filled the prescription for it asked me to reconsider taking it, he said he honestly did not want to give it to me, but he was not allowed to refuse. He was really trying to do me a favor - I should have listened.

 

[Kate51]

These Big Pharm NRT's are a farce, and everyone knows it. Dangerous as well. Poor nicotine has such a bad name, wonder how that happened?? When it takes two months for the average e-cig user to actually be able to reduce nicotine density with NO withdrawal symptoms, why would a person try to do it in 4 to 12 weeks with an expensive, dangerous drug. I am going to keep my low-dose nicotine (12mg/ml), thanks very much. I still love to puff on some great REAL Tobacco-flavored vapor, but at just over 9 months of quitting cigarettes, I think I'm doing very well cutting down on that aspect as well. It's happening without even thinking about it. It just goes so nice with my Columbian coffee and my computer time!
Even my goofy brother-in-law says it might be ok, since it took him 5 years to quit craving a cigarette. And gained 100 pounds of fat! Now have to get a try-me e-cig for my neices, they also gave up cold-turkey quitting. They've seen how I am doing after 44 years of heavy smoking. I feel like a millionaire! (NO, not all green and wrinkley!) Just very happily satisfied and comfortable.

 

[potholerepairman]

Always odd how big pharm wants to treat a drug addiction with a drug.Thats like Mike Tyson settling lawsuits with a cage bout.Anyone who wants you sell a pill with a 30 second commercial is crazy as all get out.

 

[Kattdaddy]

I would advise everyone that has a doubt as to exactly what this pill can do, The FDA doesn't know crap. I feel that they are simply a political think box willing to accept marketable products for the quick buck. Chantix is pure evil.. I tried it and the whole time that I was on it.. a week is all I lasted- I had bed sweats, high fevers, constant shakes throughout the day- I couldn't stay still to save my life, paranoia, nausea, and constant diarrea. This stuff was terrible... and my dreams.. OMG, has anyone seen the WALL!!! Try picturing that times 1000. Just a whole bunch of crazy crap and guess what, I woke up every morning and still had to have a couple cigarettes to chill my nerve from the crazy mess I woke up from.
Zyban didn't do all that to me.. but It just didn't do a thing for me and I was doing the patch at the same time, and still smoking. The gum was just too nasty for me to deal with... but I am lovin my SD and 510. Down with the FDA, Big Pharma, Big Tobacco, and all that.

 

[redeye]

I tried it as well, a couple of different times actually. I agree that it made me feel very weird and gave me crazy dreams. Honestly, what little bit I slept, I had crazy dreams. It kept me tossing and turning and waking up multiple times through the night. Plus, I felt like crap during my waking hours. My wife found a study not long after my second try with that junk and she had me read it. According to that study, and I'll have to try and find it again, it really isn't the Chantix that gives you the sleeplessness, weird dreams and overall yucky feeling. It turns out that it is the nicotine that most people continue to inhale having an adverse reaction with the effects of Chantix.

I raised tobacco for many years and I have seen and heard of people's experiences with nicotine poisoning after a day of housing tobacco. I only experienced it one time myself because it appears that people who smoke are almost immune to it. I can tell you that it was almost the exact same experience that I had with Chantix only worse. I tossed and turned all night and had some very wild dreams. On top of that I was vomiting most of the night. I literally thought I was going to die! My hat's off to those who have success with that stuff.

I also tried zyban, the patch, the gum and cold turkey with very limited success. Vaping is the only thing that has worked for me and it works quite well actually. I have virtually no cravings whatsoever and I am nearly a month with no analogs period.

 

[VaporInTheWind]

I would advise anyone NOT to try Chantix. There were 3 of us taking it at the same time. We all experienced severe anxiety, nightmares, sleeplessness, irritability and irrational anger. Taking this drug was a horrendous experience on me and my family. I did quit smoking for 69 days but my husband who hates cigarettes went and got me a pack and asked me to please stop taking the medicine and smoke again. I am now on wellburtin due to side effects of Chantix, and a year later I still haven't been able to come off the wellbutrin. Like a lot of medicines coming out these days they don't really know what it will do to you and they don't care.
I have been off alalogs for 32 days without side effects using a PV.

 

[Coder]

STAY AWAY FROM Chantix, just google and read the countless people whom had radical side effects, I had the worst experience of my life on that stuff. Bad Bad Stuff!
Please what ever you do stay away from that drug!

 

[rsmith76]

I took chantix for the 3 month period, and had no side effects while using it. I must say I was going thru a very stressful situation at home during that period as well. Quitting was very easy for me as opposed to my other situation. I was a smoker for 35 yrs. and never dreamed I could quit. I started vaping because I really missed my cigs.. I don't know if I would have started smoking again or not if I had not found the e cig. Honestly, vaping is much better than smoking. Just think about all the bad things related to smoking, that will surely make your decision to quit much easier. Chantix worked for me, but will not work for everyone. I have been smoke free for almost 2 yrs. now. Good luck in your endeavor. rsmith76

 

[Madame Psychosis]

The problem with Chantix (varenicline) as I see it is that it isn't enough of an antidepressant. It doesn't substitute for the energizing or mood-balancing effects of tobacco/nicotine.

Varenicline is a nicotinic partial agonist with no clear action (as far as my amateur reading can tell) on the major neurotransmitters implicated in depression, such as serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine.
Chantix will reduce the effectiveness of smoking on the nicotinic receptors by competitively binding to them, without allowing the release of dopamine that nicotine usually creates.
It just shuts down the pleasure response without substituting for the antidepressant effect many people get with smoking.

(I don't know if it would reduce the action of the other alkaloids in tobacco. But people who find Chantix "merely" ineffective might be a group that smokes for more than the nicotine...? Of course, those who find it intolerable may also be part of that group.)

The upshot is:
If you've been using smoking as an antidepressant (consciously or unconsciously) for years, and you therefore don't show up as clinically depressed by the HAM-D test or a doctor's diagnosis, you'll be given Chantix because you're "not depressed".

As soon as you quit smoking, you'll give up your antidepressant. And Chantix will block off the nicotine's ability to help you.

No wonder it's dangerous.

(Wellbutrin, on the other hand, is an antidepressant, but it's a rather unbalanced one on its own, acting mainly on norepinephrine --> for some people, anxiety land. It's also a nicotinic antagonist. I took Wellbutrin for years as part of an antidepressant combo. Got a late start smoking...when the Wellby crapped out on me! And it got a lot worse when I stopped the Wellbutrin altogether.)

 

[Katmar]

(Wellbutrin, on the other hand, is an antidepressant, but it's a rather unbalanced one on its own, acting mainly on norepinephrine --> for some people, anxiety land. It's also a nicotinic antagonist. I took Wellbutrin for years as part of an antidepressant combo. Got a late start smoking...when the Wellby crapped out on me! And it got a lot worse when I stopped the Wellbutrin altogether.)

And therein lies a huge problem. They just crap out after awhile......