{"id":3861,"date":"2016-04-23T21:28:44","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T21:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3861"},"modified":"2016-04-23T21:28:44","modified_gmt":"2016-04-23T21:28:44","slug":"study-no-suicide-risk-for-anti-smoking-medications-chantix-or-zyban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3861","title":{"rendered":"Study: No suicide risk for anti-smoking medications Chantix or Zyban"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chantix_1\"<\/p>\n

There has long been a lot of controversy swirling about Chantix because of concerns that it raises people’s risk of suicide. I had not heard the same thing about Zyban, but apparently there have been concerns about this drug, too.<\/p>\n

The concerns were serious enough that warnings were required on boxes of Chantix and Zyban that in some people, they increased the risk of mood problems, which included the risk of suicide. It’s a big enough deal that airline pilots and air traffic controllers are actually forbidden from using Chantix or Zyban. It’s also a big enough deal that many doctors will not prescribe Chantix or Zyban for people trying to quit cigarettes.<\/p>\n

\"b9811b3bb6abe372bd6c8e80cd39a533_thumb\"<\/p>\n

However, a major study involving more than 8,000 patients in 16 countries showed no increase risk of suicide.<\/p>\n

From SFGate:<\/a><\/p>\n

The 8,144-patient, 16-country study divided participants into four groups, each receiving either Chantix, Zyban, a nicotine replacement patch or dummy pills. They got treatment for 12 weeks and then were followed for another 12.<\/p>\n

Half the participants had existing psychiatric problems \u2014 depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder or schizophrenia. Those conditions are more common in smokers than nonsmokers and make it harder to quit.<\/p>\n

Among participants without psychiatric problems, the risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior or other serious mental health issues was very low and statistically the same: about 1.3 percent for those taking Chantix, 2.2 percent with Zyban, 2.5 percent with the nicotine patch and 2.4 percent with a dummy pill. In the half with psychiatric problems, those risks were higher across the board: about 6.5 percent for Chantix and Zyban and 5 percent for the nicotine patch and dummy pill.<\/p>\n

No participants committed suicide, though two taking dummy pills and one taking Zyban attempted it. The drugs can cause other side effects: mostly nausea, insomnia, abnormal dreams and headaches.<\/p>\n

Chantix and Zyban “pose no greater risk for suicide or suicidal ideation than the patch or nothing,” concluded Dr. Norman Edelman<\/a>, a pulmonary specialist and the American Lung Association<\/a>‘s senior science consultant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In response to this study, the manufacturers of Chantix and Zyban — Pfizer and GlaxoKlineSmith — are asking the Food and Drug Administration to remove the suicide warnings from their products. I also found online a veritable cottage industry of law firms willing to represent people wanting to sue drug companies over Chantix and Zyban over the reported side effects. I could see this getting messy.<\/p>\n

From the article:<\/p>\n

“We believe the available scientific information doesn’t support a boxed warning,” Dr. Freda C. Lewis-Hall<\/a>, a psychiatrist and Pfizer’s chief medical officer, told The Associated Press<\/a> in an exclusive interview.<\/p>\n

Pfizer executives and longtime medicinal chemist Jotham Coe<\/a>, the inventor of Chantix, think it’s been vindicated. Coe, who still works at Pfizer, is a former smoker who quit cold turkey after his father, uncle, aunt and both grandmothers died of cancer or emphysema after years of smoking.<\/p>\n

“I understand how difficult and grueling the quitting journey can be,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

New York-based Pfizer Inc.<\/a> hopes to discuss the results with regulators around the world, including the FDA, which isn’t saying what it will do.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has long been a lot of controversy swirling about Chantix because of concerns that it raises people’s risk of suicide. I had not heard the same thing about Zyban, but apparently there have been concerns about this drug, too. The concerns were serious enough that warnings were required on boxes of Chantix and Zyban … Continue reading Study: No suicide risk for anti-smoking medications Chantix or Zyban<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[805,806],"tags":[807,808],"class_list":["post-3861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chantix","category-zyban","tag-chantix","tag-zyban"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Chantix_1.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-10h","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4242,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4242","url_meta":{"origin":3861,"position":0},"title":"Great parody of really kind of weird Ray Liotta Chantix ad","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"February 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"OK, I immediately took an interest in this Ray Liotta Chantix ad that you see constantly on ESPN and during football games, just because of my interest in tobacco control. It's actually not a bad commercial. Ray sounds very sincere in his endorsement for this product and\/or service. However, he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chantix"","block_context":{"text":"Chantix","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=805"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/hqdefault.jpg?fit=480%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2878,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2878","url_meta":{"origin":3861,"position":1},"title":"Another Engle Case judgement — $17.3 million against Philip Morris","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is yet another in a long line (literally thousands) of Engle Case lawsuits in Florida. The Engle case was a Supreme Court decision that overturned a $145 billion class-action judgement against Big Tobacco, while at the same time allowing individual lawsuits against various tobacco companies to be filed. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Engle case"","block_context":{"text":"Engle case","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=24"},"img":{"alt_text":"0.8A!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/0.8AOpenElementFieldElemFormatgif.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1364,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1364","url_meta":{"origin":3861,"position":2},"title":"2013 — The Year of the E-Cig","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You've seen the ads, we've all seen them. They're almost ubiquitous on TV and in magazines. One publication called 2013 the \"Year of the E-cigs.\" E-cigs are expected to seriously take off in 2014. I can type \"e-cig\" into Google or into the Tobacco.org database and I will literally get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "e-cigarettes"","block_context":{"text":"e-cigarettes","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"stephen-dorff-blu-e-cigs","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/stephen-dorff-blu-e-cigs-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1707,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1707","url_meta":{"origin":3861,"position":3},"title":"NBC, CNN go all out on smoking this weekend","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For the 50th anniversary of the Surgeon General's watershed report on smoking and lung cancer, both NBC News and CNN had for a time last weekend smoking as their top stories. Imagine my excitement seeing cigarette smoking dominating the top of both websites with so many other stories going on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cigarettes"","block_context":{"text":"cigarettes","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=18"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/nbc-front-page.jpg?fit=1200%2C705&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/nbc-front-page.jpg?fit=1200%2C705&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/nbc-front-page.jpg?fit=1200%2C705&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/nbc-front-page.jpg?fit=1200%2C705&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/nbc-front-page.jpg?fit=1200%2C705&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2373,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=2373","url_meta":{"origin":3861,"position":4},"title":"Study: Smoking may increase risk of suicide","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"July 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting story from Epoch Times. According to a Washington University study, smoking may actually contribute to the risk of suicide. And that policies that work to reduce smoking rates such as cigarette taxes and smoking bans might also reduce the number of suicides. I know that sounds nuts, but there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "nicotine"","block_context":{"text":"nicotine","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=260"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/shutterstock_176089412-676x450.jpg?fit=676%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/shutterstock_176089412-676x450.jpg?fit=676%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/shutterstock_176089412-676x450.jpg?fit=676%2C450&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1278,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=1278","url_meta":{"origin":3861,"position":5},"title":"Live Action Cowboy Bebop … what are they going to do about the smoking?","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"December 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This is pretty funny. Just read that Keanu Reeves had at one point been tabbed to play \"Spike Spiegel\" in the live action version of Cowboy Bebop. (Not really sure if live action versions of anime will work, Akira has been in development hell for more than 10 years). Anyway,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "smoking in movies"","block_context":{"text":"smoking in movies","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=61"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/keanu-reeves-live-action-cowboy-bebop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}