See, there's nothing wrong with Chantix!

[rothenbj]

FDA: studies do not tie Chantix to psych problems - Yahoo! Finance

"The Food and Drug Administration has been investigating reports of mood disorders and erratic behavior among Chantix patients since 2007. The agency said in a statement that two federally-funded studies involving more than 26,000 patients did not show an increased rate of psychiatric hospitalizations among Chantix patients, compared with those using nicotine patches and smoking cessation treatments."

See, it's only E Cigs that create a clear and present danger.

 

[mostlyclassics]

The agency said in a statement that two federally-funded studies involving more than 26,000 patients did not show an increased rate of psychiatric hospitalizations among Chantix patients, compared with those using nicotine patches and smoking cessation treatments.

(emphasis added)

Garbage in = garbage out.

Some people I've known who quit or tried to quit have gone through symptoms similar to those generated by Chantix, but without using Chantix.

One guy, whose wife was constantly on him to quit smoking, tried several times, but had such severe mood disorders that their divorce was the result (at least, so say both of them and both their therapists). He's now vaping. He and his wife are talking about getting back together to give the marriage another try.

It may well be the case that standard smoking cessation treatments, including Chantix, don't work for a lot of people and that Chantix, itself, is not much better than a placebo. A very expensive placebo.

On the other hand, nicotine replacement therapies, especially snus (and such) and vaping, seem to work much better, and without the nasty behavoral side-effects.

 

[Placebo Effect]

Ohh, so there weren't hospitalizations. How many people experienced terrible dreams, felt like crap, etc. and simply stopped taking the product before going back to smoking?

 

[Thulium]

Ohh, so there weren't hospitalizations. How many people experienced terrible dreams, felt like crap, etc. and simply stopped taking the product before going back to smoking?

I'm pretty sure the HUNDREDS of people who have committed suicide while taking chantix weren't hospitalized. ....It also doesn't look like they counted the hospitalization of the THOUSANDS of people who weren't taking chantix but had acts of violence committed against them by someone who was.

 

[Snazzier]

I tried Chantix - the first time I used it I took half doses and it made me a little crazy (could not imagine what whole doses would have done). I quit for most of a year. Second time I tried it made me a lot crazy and I broke out in hives. Needless to say, Chantix is not my friend.

 

[KTaylor]

I'm a pretty normal person (at least I think I am...LOL) and Chantix made me feel VERY bad. Horrible nightmares, huge mood swings and depression (I'm a very happy person btw). Hated that stuff, went back to analogs after 3 weeks on it. Thank God for vaping!!!!!

 

[D103]

I notice that the article failed to mention that literally hundreds of people that were taking Chantix, were not admitted for psychiatric hospitalization.........because they were DEAD!! The blatant disregard for the "entire picture" concerning the danger of this drug and worse, the blatant disregard for the public's safety borders on criminal (reckless endangerment) and is appallingly remiss regarding public health, truth-telling and professional/ethical responsibility.

Profit is awarded higher priority than human life, spin/damage control usurps true and ethical investigations as well as accurate reporting to the public. They have absolutley no qualms whenever their bottom line ends up as a bold and permanent line through your name on life's ledger. Collateral damage, acceptable loss, the cost of progress or the price of doing business - however it is characterized Big Pharma has had it's thumb on the scales for decades and our collective passive acceptance of this egregious behavior only serves to enable it further.

I believe our collective consumerism is far more powerful and influential than is our individual vote. We should be thinking in terms of nationwide boycotts.

 

[rothenbj]

I'm sure the FDA considered potential "collateral damage" when they approved it, of course they did. However, as I've read before many of these people would have died of smoking related diseases ANYWAY. Now it might have been years, decades later, but the potential good overshadows anything bad that occurs. I mean, billions are made, of millions of lives are saved. That's the line.

 

[rolygate]

And anyway the worst part of the problem is supposed to be the heart attacks: 1 in 30 patients experience a 'cardiac event' according to several research trials. It is estimated that about 62,500 people had a heart attack caused by Chantix in the US in 2010.

It is not recorded if this occurred while they were attacking someone or committing suicide.

 

[sqirl1]

obviously I've never taken chantix..... but believe me I've taken all kinds of medicines that made me psychotic when I was a kid, it wasn't pretty.

 

[KTaylor]

I guess analogs weren't killing people fast enough....they needed something more efficient.

 

[Thulium]

On the one hand you have liquid vaporizers that about the only thing we don't know for certain is exactly how many orders of magnitude safer they are than smoking and they want to ban it... Meanwhile, a product that nobody is completely sure quite of all the ways it effects the brain but it something along the lines of a (hopefully) temporarily shutting down the portion of your brain that desires cigarettes...and frankly, that portion of MY brain is pretty closely associated with things that I rather enjoy, shut that down and I can see myself geting a little grumpy. No varenicline for me, thanks.

 

[rothenbj]

It didn't take long for those TV journalists to pick up on the good report from the FDA, I heard all was well on the noon news here in the Philly area. The news bit ran just a few moments before the break for commercials, one of which was...... a commercial for Chantix. Shouldn't TV news have to disclose conflicts of interest?

 

[markfm]

Does that mean they can get rid of the black box warning (wikipedia: "A black box warning means that medical studies indicate that the drug carries a significant risk of serious or even life-threatening adverse effects."), replacing it with a smiley face?

 

[rothenbj]

Oh no, that stays and the only real news that they were selling was that there was no need to expand it (not mentioning how drastic the warning already was). I think the news report might have been written by Pfizer's Marketing dept. and approved by Pfizers lawyers. Evening news is on now and I'm interested in seeing if it's again the lead on Healthwatch. They already had a Chantix add since the news started.

 

[Vap0rJay]

 

[Bill Godshall]

The FDA's Drug Safety Communication for Chantix is at
FDA Drug Safety Communication: Safety review update of Chantix (varenicline) and risk of neuropsychiatric adverse events

 

[rothenbj]

FDA is continuing to evaluate the risk of neuropsychiatric events with Chantix. The drug manufacturer is conducting a large safety clinical trial of Chantix to assess neuropsychiatric adverse events, and results from this study are expected in 2017.

That should be an interesting report, I hope it gets done on time. Any delays could push the study into 2018 and Chantix's patent expiration in November. A bad report could negatively impact the generic industry.

 

[MoonRose]

And yet the FDA considers this poison to be appropriate for smoking cessation. It is ... if you're dead, you're not smoking.


Chantix Linked to Cardiovascular Events in Patients Free of CVD - Physician's First Watch

The smoking-cessation drug varenicline (Chantix) is associated with an increased risk for adverse cardiovascular events among smokers free of cardiovascular disease at baseline, according to a meta-analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Researchers analyzed data from 14 clinical trials comparing varenicline with placebo among some 8200 tobacco users. Varenicline users had a 72% increased risk for any ischemic or arrhythmic adverse cardiovascular event, compared with placebo users (absolute risk: 1.06% vs. 0.82%). The authors cite a published finding that 10 people would need to be treated with varenicline for one additional person to quit smoking, and they estimate that 28 would need to be treated for one person to experience a cardiovascular event.

The article's senior author told the New York Times that varenicline should be pulled from the shelves: "I don't see how the FDA can leave Chantix on the market." The FDA had recently warned about increased cardiovascular risk among patients with existing cardiovascular disease.

 

[Vocalek]

And on a related note, I just read that 14 to 25 nonsmokers would need to increase their risks by starting to use smokeless tobacco in order to equal the harm averted by 1 smoker switching to smokeless.

Unfortunately, there are only 6.8 adult non-smokers in the US for every smoker (312,394,000 divided by 45,300,000). The 312M number for the adult US population is based on 2010 Census figures. The 45.3M number of smokers is from the CDC NHIS estimates.

The CDC estimates that there are 442,083 annual smoking-related deaths, including those attributed to second-hand smoke.

If all 312M adults switched to a smoke-free product that is 90% less hazardous than smoking, the number of annual smoking-related deaths would drop to 270,799. If, as is more likely, the product were 99% less hazardous than smoking, the death toll would drop to 27,080.

Is it likely that every single non-smoker will take up use of smokeless? This study: Stenbeck M, Hagquist C, Rosén M. The association of snus and smoking behaviour: a cohort analysis of Swedish males in the 1990s. Addiction. 2009 Sep;104(9):1579-85.

Found that

In the Age 16-44 bracket, there were 6 smoking quitters per 1 starter of smokeless.
In the Age 45-84 bracket, there were 2 smoking quitters per 1 starter of smokeless.