Chantix suicide numbers are out

I took Chantix a year ago for 8 weeks (1 week prior to quitting, as they recommend, and 7 more weeks off cigs). I did stay off cigarettes for the 7 weeks, but I think that was will power, not the Chantix. I never, ever lost the urge to smoke, so the drug didn't have the desired effect. Quite the contrary, I was so flatulent as to be unemployable, and constantly nauseated. I even threw up in the only supermarket in town, which was fun for all.

I didn't experience suicidal thoughts, but I did want to hurt myself. My arms were covered in deep scratches that brought blood, and I just withdrew from the world, couldn't talk to anybody.

I've quit cold turkey twice before (as succesfully as Mark Twain, obv) and I lasted nine months each time. I never had the problems I've listed above when I went cold turkey. Well, the constant urge to smoke, of course.

With all the restrictions and stigma associated with smoking, I can't imagine anyone who still wants to be a smoker. However, I think the brain is the least-understood body part by medical science. It certainly seems that medications that act on the brain have a small but significant chance of suicide that conveniently don't show up in clinical trials.

I read somewhere that Chantix had NOT been tested on people who abuse alcohol. What sort of a trial is that? Ask any doctor, or anyone who owned a restaurant prior to the smoking bans, and they will tell you that heavy smokers are far more likely to be heavy drinkers than the average member of society. That's why most restaurant owners were so against the smoking ban: They make much more money on the alcohol than they do on food.

The FDA needs to monitor this, although it is famously slow and reluctant to reverse approvals. I doubt coroners are going to list cause of death: chantix, when reviewing a suicide. It would be good if they all mentioned it and were informed of it by the survivors.

First do no harm... Of course, that is not the pharmaceutical companies' oath. My sincere condolences to the posters on this site who have lost someone to suicide.

 

Not going to be happenin' any time soon. The FDA is all paid for and will make sure enough money is being made......

 

Silk Tie Guy looks like he is mad at the world for some reason....that look would
depress any one lmao.

 

I think you're absolutely right. Calm down already. ROTFLMAO

 

I've quit smoking before. Welbuterin, cold turkey. I have NEVER experienced the depression that I did with Chantix.

 

Wake up people, anytime you mess with Dopamine "you are a pschotropic" drug trying to call yourself a "smoking cessation" drug... that's why there are so many suicides. I am surprised at Pfizer to be so careless with this drug...unbelieveable!!

Go look up Zyprexa, Risperdal or any ANTI-PSYCHOTIC drug (Pfizer had a dog anti-psychotic can't remember it's name that never made it caused qtc prolongation) and you will see they all play with the Dopamine receptors pre-dominantly. If you are NOT psychotic you do not need manipulation with Dopamine. Anti-depressants effect serotonin, and nor-epinephrine NOT Dopamine that's the difference with Wellbutrin/ Zyban why it did NOT do this when pts took it for smoking. Taking a drug like this supposedly to stop smoking when you are unaware you are playing unneccesarily with your neurotransmitters... is risky, and wrong that the doctors are not informing their patients properly. That's why people are acting "psychotic", the side effects you are describing are that of psychotic/ schizo-affective patients.

It's crazy... and if you don't believe me look into it .... do the research. This drug should be taken off the market immediately... 55 suicides is extremely high for any drug and ridiculous for a smoking-cessation drug!

People out there with loved ones lost... start raising the noise level and look into the pharmacology ... TAKE ACTION ... before more get hurt.

 

I started taking Chantix in October. The results were amazing. I did get very disturbing dreams of me watching people that I knew getting killed. It was aweful. About 2 weeks ago, I started getting paranoid of the thought of dying. I thought about it all the time. DEATH. Me dying, my 1 year old dying my mom dying, ect. I would lay in bed at night and just cry. Finally I wondered if it was the Chantix. I stopped taking it. The thoughts stopped. Has anyone else experienced this? And now that I am off of it are there side effects that I need to worry about because I took the medication to begin with?

 

WAS THE WOMAN WHO WALKED OUT ONTO THE EXPRESSWAY WITH HER
YOUNG NEPHEW AND NIECE IN HER ARMS TAKING CHANTIX?
MAYBE THEY SHOULD LOOK INTO IT.

 

Maybe she was just mad? Both my wife and I are taking Chantix with no problems at all except she doesn't like the dreams and I don't like the nausea after taking the morning one. neither is bad enough for us to stop taking it.

 

RX
How to quit smoking
EAT 1/2 banana every three hours
Did you know that bananas are as effective as ANY antidepressant?
They have no one Lobbying or marketing for them .
You don't need a Prescription.

Do not pay for chantix.
Do not go crazy .
It helps if you quit smoking when you are under alot of stress...maximum stress such as when your DumA$$ Dm is harassing you and Pfizer has stolen another bonus check.
Why ?
Because quitting smoking cannot stress you out when you are already maxed.
Allow yourself to be pI$$*d off . Dont blame it on the lack of a cigarette
because this company is the real reason you are so mad. Then you will know that a cigarette will not help your situation. Accept that and
you will quit smoking. It worked for ME!

 

5 months and NO cigarette? stop taking chantix
How long do you plan to take a dopamine F$%^&*r upper?
Maybe Chantix need two black boxes
one for suicde and the other for addiction.

 

suicide

 

Bananas contain potassium.

Watch your potassium-sodium-calcium, etc., balance if you are quitting smoking or not.

 

Big Pharma >= Mafia

With the only difference that you are legally ripping off people.

 

I just Chantix for 3 months and have successfully quit smoking...I've been smoke free for about 7 months..And I smoked for 10 years....It was hard at first and at times I felt depressed but I only experienced extreme depression after I was finished taking Chantix...Smoking is one of the biggest challenges but If you can quit smoking, you can do anything....Dont give up!!!!

 

Hey turdbags....If you took 4 million people (the number of scripts that have been written for Chantix ) in the general population who have NEVER taken Chantix... the suicide rate would be much higher than 55 people !! The media is all about sensationalism !

 

Great point above ... and how many people die of lung cancer every year??? More than 55 I bet ! WTF???

 

I started taking Chantix in the beginning of Nov. last year and quit after a week. Normally a happy go lucky guy who got engaged in sept. of '07, but all of a sudden I broke up my engagement, drink every night heavily, cry at the drop of a hat and have suicidal thoughts non-stop, dropped the chantix adn I am slowly getting better over the last week or so, but also realizing that I did so many things that I never would have even possibly thought have before, most of them terribly bad. Either way, I never felt like I do now, and I am smoking again, feel like I just want it to end all of a sudden or vanish into a hole never to come out. Somehow I think that Chantix had something to do with it.

 

I must strongly disagree with your reply to the poster who is on Chantix for 5 months. Every single physician I call on prescribes this drug for 6 months straight. I'd say 1/3 of them also write for an anti-anxiety medicine for 1-2 months.

I know a person that quit smoking years ago, but has been chewing nicotine gum for 8 or 9 years. Nothing wrong with that either, other than being addictive and constricting vessels, nicotine itself is not hat bad for you.

Bravo, and stay on Chantix as long as you need, but 6 months is not too long, it is normal.