Chantix: Vast Majority of Trial Participants Failed to Stay Smoke-Free

New York, NYAs Chantix is poised to go on the market in India, questions remain as to its adverse affects related to mood swings, and suicide ideation.

The smoking cessation drug from Pfizer, on the market in the US for only a couple of years, is sold as Champix in the UK and will also be patented under that name in India. It has been reported that Champix was also the preferred name for the American market as well, but the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) eschewed the name, but accepted Chantix as a worthy alternative.

The pharmacology is the same for both drugs.That suggests that the same risk factors inherent with Chantix in the US and Champix in the UK, will be a concern for consumers of Champix in New Delhi and the remainder of the country.

The smoking cessation industry has been awash in adverse, and in some cases dramatic reports of reactions, including suicide ideation. On February 1st the FDA issued another in a series of warnings about Chantix in the US concerning 491 cases of suicidal ideation, and 37 actual suicides linked to usage of Chantix.

While the latter is listed as a rare adverse affect on product packaging, together with things like euphoria, hallucination, and psychotic disorder, suicidal ideation appears to be increasing relative to the number of smokers who have embraced Chantix as a final, faint-hope attempt to qui the evils of tobacco for good.

Chantix was introduced with much fanfare, and with good reason. There were few smoking cessation medications on the market that offered smokers an alternative to the more traditional patch, or nicotine gum. And in clinical trials, not only did adverse affects prove to be minimal, but the success rate of participants effectively coming off tobacco and staying off after the 12-week program, was higher than any of Chantix' competitors.

The need was so great, and the results so promising that Chantix was fast-tracked through the FDA approval process, or so it has been reported. However, it was also reported that trial participants were an exceedingly healthy bunch, emotional and otherwise. Individuals presenting either serious emotional or physical illness were weeded out—as were anyone with any kind of pre-existing psychotic or emotional disorder.

Presumably, the manufacturer was attempting to study a group considered as 'normal' as possible, as opposed to anyone presenting any kind of excess baggage that might be brought into the trial process.

However, were this to be true the trial would therefore not amount to a true representation of the overall smoking population, which is considered to be in general less healthy, and presenting a greater propensity for emotional instability as a group, than non-smokers.

And while Chantix was seen to have worked better in a controlled trial than a sugar pill, and appeared to prove more effective than bupropion (Zyban), results were still mixed.
It was reported on the Mayo Clinic web site that one study found that Chantix worked better than Zyban only for the first 24 weeks. Other studies appeared to show that Chantix was more effective than Zyban for up to a year after trial participants successfully quit smoking.

It should also be noted that in clinical trials, while the results were considered extremely promising by the smoking cessation community, the majority of participants did NOT successfully quit smoking. Most, in fact were not successful in remaining smoke-free for the first 12-week window of the study.

In fact, the percentage of smokers who remained smoke free one year after completing a smoking cessation program with Chantix, ranged from 14 per cent, to 23 per cent.

It is also important to note that participants in Chantix clinical trials also participated
in weekly counseling sessions, in an effort to help them quit—a leg-up that many, if not most quitters would not have access to.

Even with weekly counseling, the vast majority of Chantix trial participants—individuals with good overall health and little or no emotional health issues—were not successful at quitting--which all appears to confirm that regardless of the method chosen, putting an end to a life-long smoking habit is never easy under any circumstances.

In the end, Chantix is just another way of going about it. But at the end of the day Chantix doesn't make the task any easier, and does not replace the need for determination and a steely will to succeed.

Depending upon how your particular brain is wired, Chantix could make the going that much tougher.

Sadly, 37 people found it just too tough to go on with their lives...