Anti-Smoking Drugs Linked to Suicides
 Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 by Connie T.
Which is worse for you: smoking a cigarette; or psychiatric problems, depression, and/or suicidal
thoughts? The FDA tacked black box warnings onto two prescription quit smoking drugs yesterday, Chantix and Zyban,
for carrying the potential of causing the side effects above. The new label will highlight the risk of serious
mental health symptoms from use of the products.
The FDA said that 98 suicides and 188 suicide attempts were
reported in patients using Chantix (made by Pfizer, Inc.); 14 people committed suicide and 17 attempted it who were using Zyban
(manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline).
Although
some patients' mental health problems ended after they stopped taking their anti-smoking product, that is also when other
patients' mental symptoms just began, and continued to last.
The drug manufacturers will be required to perform
clinical trials to further measure psychiatric symptoms.
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