Does Chantix Work?

Many people who have tried to quit smoking turn to a stop smoking aid to help them complete the task. Chantix, or Champix as it is known outside of the United States, is one such quitting aid that is available to some smokers. Because of the seemingly high risk of side effects most smokers want to know before jumping in is does Chantix work? To answer this question lets first explore how Chantix works and what clinical trials have found.

Nicotine attaches to receptors in the brain that are responsible for reward signals. When you smoke these receptors get flooded and over time pathways of nicotine become established and the brain becomes addicted to nicotine. Chantix blocks these receptors from taking up nicotine by flooding the same receptors. After a week at the lowest dose, smokers are asked to quit and start taking a higher dose of the drug and to continue the use for a few months following their quit date.

The success of Chantix has been reported to be between a 10 and 20 percent of patients trying the program. Those using a therapy program have close to a 20 percent chance of quitting, while those who don’t have closer to a 10 percent chance of quitting. A recent study shows that about 14 percent of those who try Chantix are still non-smokers after 6 months.

When you pair these weak results with the potential side effects of Chantix, the scales tip. Chantix has been involved with hundreds of murders and suicides and also has the potential to cause a rare and deadly skin rash, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS). All told, Chantix is responsible for more adverse events reported to the FDA than any other individual drug in recent years. In fact a recent report states that “lost” reports at the FDA reveals there are even more suicides than previous thought.

According to the American Council on Science and Health, the FDA is requiring Pfizer, the maker of the drug, to do a follow up study of the drug. This new study must make people suffering from depression a significant segment of the sample population. This of course puts the future of the drug at risk and may mean the FDA could pull the drug from the market.

Resources:
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/02/chantix-and-suicide-the-latest-numbers/
http://www.chantix-legal.com/news/2009/05/05/pfizer-might-fund-study-of-...
http://www.drugs.com/sfx/chantix-side-effects.html
http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsid.2457/news_detail.a
http://whyquit.com/pr/061411.html
http://www.chantix-legal.com/news/2011/05/31/chantix-suicides-and-violen...

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