Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette

Light up it may not kill you but Chantix and Zyban could cause suicidal and depressive thoughts

With story from HealthDay

HealthDay reported July 1, 2009 that the popular stop smoking drugs Chantix and Zyban will carry warnings of possible psychiatric effects.

Two drugs prescribed to help people quit smoking, Chantix and Zyban, will now carry “black-box” warnings on the potential risks of psychiatric problems, including depression and suicidal thoughts, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was mandating the black-box warnings, the strictest possible, based on reports to the agency of these side effects and on a review of clinical trials and scientific literature. 

“We are requiring the manufacturers of the smoking-cessation drugs Chantix and Zyban to add a new boxed warning highlighting the risk of serious mental health symptoms with use of these products,” Dr. Curt Rosebraugh, director of the FDA’s Office of Drug Evaluation II, said during a Wednesday teleconference.

The agency’s review found that some people who used Chantix (varenicline) and Zyban (bupropion) experienced unusual changes in behavior, became depressed, or had their depression worsen and had thoughts of suicide or dying, the FDA said.

Rosebraugh said there were reports of 98 suicides and 188 suicide attempts involving Chantix, and 14 suicides and 17 attempts reported with Zyban. Healthday

People who were negatively affected mentally started to have the symptoms when taking the drugs. The stopped having the symptoms when they stopped taking Chanitx and Zyban.

The number of people reported with these symptoms appear low. Anecdotal evidence finds many people don’t like the emotional and mental downside to anti-smoking drugs.

A few weeks ago, John Rehder was playing at the Guild. His wry song was in praise of the quiet joy of smoking. If smoking gives people pleasure and Zyban makes them suicidal what choice is there?

Smoking as taboo

Social scientists suggest that cultures need taboos. Even sophisticated societies need a way for the morally righteous to control the masses. It used to be religion in western society that told us what was good and evil; however, the wane of religion has created a void that we have filled with various new taboos. Current taboos enjoyed by billions of people are sex, alcohol and recreational drugs like marijuana.

I was amused again last week when the press reported that prescription drug abuse is a bigger problem than all other drugs combined. Why aren’t we arresting all those moms and dads who like their Blue Cross habits? Instead we spend billions criminalizing people who smoke joints. Taboos aren’t logical.

The anti-smoking campaign is one of the biggest taboos. It has it’s high priests and establishment people who make a living telling smokers how bad they are for mankind and dangerous to themselves. They work for the Cancer Society, health and anti-smoking groups. They get laws passed banning smoking in bars, offices, and potentially people’s private homes, lest other occupants have to endure second hand smoke.

The Anti-Smoking Crusade Will Fail Again wrote Foster Gunnison Jr. of Hartford wrote in the New York Times back in 1985. Gunnison was optimistic. Crusades do fail but not before decades or centuries pass. There is nothing like a good moral cause to rouse the emotions of the populace.

Smoking may be bad for your health. But what isn’t? Every day the scientists and media tell us something is bad for our health. Lose weight with the grapefruit diet. No, eating grapefruit will cause reactions with your medication.

We are all going to die and the date is genetically encoded in our DNA according to scientists.

Some people like Winston Churchill will die in their 90’s because they have a genetic predisposition to long life. Churchill smoked the large Romeo and Julietta Cuban cigars all his life and drank scotch, whiskey and brandy daily and in large amounts. It didn’t kill him although it may have contributed to his strokes. Who knows? My mother never smoked, drinks a glass of wine a day but had two strokes. Maybe she got them from worrying about being perfect.

For the record, I don’t smoke, did for decades and dislike smoke in enclosed places. However, anti-smoking campaigns are not my cup of tea.