On March 30, I did a post about the FDA investigating the asthma drug Singulair. The comments on that post led into an off discussion about the side effects of Chantix, the popular anti-smoking drug by Pfizer. My dear friend Janet had a horrible reaction from Chantix which landed her in the ER. Since hearing her story and subsequent others I’ve been following this drug in the news and medical reports. This is hitting the wires in the last few hours:
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices examined adverse-effect reports turned into the FDA, which included 988 serious injuries linked to Chantix in the U.S. during last year’s fourth quarter — more than any other medication during that period. On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration banned use of Chantix by pilots and air traffic controllers after the Institute called the agency’s attention to its report the previous evening.
Chantix has already been connected to psychiatric red flags including suicide, but this new report suggests links to other serious problems such as heart trouble, seizures and diabetes.
Source: WSJ.com
From CNN.Money.com
From Forbes.com
From Bloomberg.com
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Thanks for this post. I passed the info on to a friend of mine.
I hope more people should be aware for the effects of this drug. Thanks for sharing, very informative.
Just did a google search about Chantix; here’s why:
Heard on tonight’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” (dated 6/17/08) Olbermann say that “the Veteran’s Administration has been using our Iraq and Afghanistan vets in emotional distress as guinea pigs for unproven drugs for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder,” including Chantix, for a period of 3 months before informing them of the possible side effects “which includes suicide and neuropsychiatric behavior,” to which Olbermann attributed the story to ABC (link: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5180437&page=1)
I wonder if that relates to this story (I also wonder what else they test on unsuspecting people): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB2-xER8NS8
Do our troops not go through enough as it is?
Sorry…didn’t mean to turn the topic political on you.