Chantix Cure for Smoking Not Worth the Side Effects

I am a smoker who has quit. Quitting isn't the problem. Staying quit is. When I heard of Chantix (chemical name - varenicline), the pill that works by blocking nicotine receptors in the brain, I was excited. I could smoke during the first seven days of taking Chantix as it built up in my system. I signed up for the Chantix online help and began receiving daily e-mails with written exercises, which I dutifully completed. I was committed and ready.

Quit day came and I had no problem. The Chantix had time to build in my system and I had nary a nicotine craving. Chantix also provided a little dopamine boost to help with discomfort. Days two and three came and went and I was still not smoking. I began to feel a bit nauseous and was having some amazingly vivid dreams (both documented side effects and listed on the patient information included with the starter pack). Since the third day is always the hardest for me, I was excited as I awoke on Day 4 and still had not smoked.

Then a dark cloud descended over my world and obscured the abyss into which I would soon plummet.

The information packet also stated that all patients "should be observed for neuropsychiatric symptoms including changes in behavior, agitation, depressed mood, suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior." Figuring this was a CYA maneuver on the part of Pfizer (the pharmaceutical company that makes Chantix); I was not concerned since I don't have any major medical or psychiatric issues. I did alert my husband and my father to what I was doing, just in case. Good thing I told them.

My previous attempts at quitting all came with me warning those closest to me that I might be a little "moody" for the first week or so. I'd become impatient, grumpy, easily frustrated, but it would pass. I expected my mood to be better with Chantix. Instead, it took a terrifying turn for the worse.

I began to burst into tears for no reason and was unable to control these outbursts. I began reviewing every mistake I had ever made in my life - as if I was watching a movie of all the low points in my life and was unable to turn it off. My dreams became more and more bizarre (what I imagine an acid trip would be like) and now included some truly scary nightmares. My vision became blurry. I had trouble remembering things.

My husband came home from work and found me in bed - I'd been there all day. Not sleeping, just unable to get up. I had a profound sense of ennui. I wondered why I was alive and what use I was to anyone. I cancelled my weekly lunch with my dad as well as my weekly shift as a volunteer. I didn't get any work done for four days - I work from home and luckily I didn't even come close to missing a deadline. I didn't shower. I began to vomit and couldn't stop for almost 36 hours.

I continued to isolate myself and became more and more depressed. The scary thing is that I wasn't fully aware of what was happening to me. I was slowly disappearing from my own life. It was as though I was in a perpetual dream state and couldn't connect to my true self. My husband could connect and he did. After his loving intervention I tossed the rest of Chantix. I returned to normal in a matter of a couple of days, I assume because I had only been on Chantix for two weeks.

I began walking 2 miles per day and am smoking less now than I was. I still want to quit and stay quit. I'm still committed. I have a new quite date. But it will take some work, rather than a magic pill.

Interestingly enough, Chantix has been in the news, I just missed it until I started searching. My doctor missed the disturbing news as well, because he happily pronounced Chantix a "wonder drug" when I requested it. He did not alert me to the possibility of "suicidal ideation" and other psychiatric side effects. Neither did the pharmacist. Most disturbing, the required drug information page the pharmacy printed was blank - as though the database had not been updated to include information about Chantix. I hate to think what would have happened if I had not read the information that was inside the box of Chantix.

Chantix is marketed as Champix outside the United States. That makes me think of the strip mall located restaurant that keeps changing names every few months because of failure to pass health department inspections.

Apparently there is a small group of drugs that account for 100 or more reports of serious harm per calendar quarter. Chantix hit that list in 2006. By the last quarter of 2007, Chantix lead the list with 988 reports for that quarter alone.

In September 2007 Chantix also gained the kind of publicity that made the Pfizer PR department cringe when Carter Albrecht (a 34-year-old Dallas musician) was shot to death in the middle of the night while pounding on a neighbor's door as he screamed in a violent rage. His family and his girlfriend blamed his outburst on his taking Chantix. Within one week after the story aired, the FDA had received 5,157 complaints. Suicide was reported 55 times. Suicidal thoughts were mentioned in 199 cases and 417 people complained of depression. There were hundreds of mentions of anger, aggression, amnesia, hallucination, and homicidal thoughts.

In mid-May 2008, the FAA banned pilots from using Chantix citing "a variety of unusual and serious side effects, including loss of consciousness and seizures." Shortly thereafter the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which oversees the interstate trucking and bus industry, followed suit stating that people shouldn't be qualified for trucking licenses while they're taking Chantix.

While Pfizer brought the world Viagra, and Celebrex, Pfizer also brought us the cholesterol drug Lipitor, which increased the death rate by 58% in one study. Pfizer is being sued for $2 billion over its antibiotic Trovan, which Nigerian officials claim killed several children during clinical trials. Its epilepsy drug Lyrica is thought to increase the risk of suicide, and in 2004 Pfizer plead guilty to two felonies and paid $430 million in penalties to settle charges that it fraudulently promoted the epilepsy drug Neurontin for a slew of unapproved uses. While the Pfizer scandals don't reach the scale of say, the Merck Vioxx debacle, they are still worrisome.

My experience with Chantix and subsequent research into Pfizer's history makes me wary of taking any medication. The cure may be worse than the disease my friends.