Richmond, VAVirginia was prescribed Chantix in April 2007 and planned to take it for about a month to help her quit smoking. "I worked at Phillip Morris for 17 years and they encouraged us to smoke," says Virginia. But she was led to believe that kicking the habit would be easy with Chantix. Instead this drug turned Virginia's life into a living nightmare.
"For the most part it started out smoothly," says Virginia. "I didn't have many withdrawal symptoms; in fact sometimes I was in a euphoric mood. But little things started to bother me, like someone cutting me off in traffic. I was irritable but not as much as I expected to be, trying to quit smoking.
"After a while I noticed that I was becoming more hyperactive—I wasn't sleeping much and even my friends and family noticed. My mum told me I was bouncing off the walls. 'You should see me with my friends,' I told her. I recognized that I was more hyper and aggravated with things. Everything was speeding up, like I was on some kind of amphetamine. Still, I didn't think there was much of a problem. My main problem was bloating and gas and nausea so I cut back on the Chantix dosage.
Even though my family and friends were noticing personality changes and suggested I go back to my doctor, I was afraid to go back because I thought he would make me run up and down the stairs again. I originally saw him complaining of shortness of breath. He got me to run up and down the stairs three times—I was about to keel over when I returned to his office. He put me on the EKG machine, sent me for pulmonary tests and gave me the prescription for Chantix. I thought it would be like any other medication—once you quit taking it, like any other med it would take a few days to leave your system and it would be over.
Finally my husband went back with me; I was still complaining about shortness of breath and this time my doctor gave me an asthma inhaler and valium to slow me down. One week later I woke up in a living nightmare—I was startled, scared and paranoid. After a while I calmed down and talked to my family about it. They thought I should take another Chantix instead of cutting back, to take my medicine and not worry. (This is prior to all the publicity about Chantix.) That evening I took another pill and the next morning woke up even crazier.
I was doing weird stuff and thinking weird thoughts. That night a friend came over and I went really crazy—I knew I had to get to the hospital. My husband drove me to ER; the first time I didn't go in because I was afraid. We drove over a bridge and I told my husband to turn around—I thought he was going to drive off the bridge and kill us! I forced the car over to the side of the road, grabbed his glasses and threw them in the river—I knew he couldn't drive without them. I had thoughts of getting a gun and shooting myself, my husband, my son or even my dog.
I knew something was really wrong. Fortunately I didn't get a gun, otherwise I would be in jail right now. And I am afraid of guns! I drove back to the hospital; I was scared but knew I needed medical attention—right away.
There was a security guard at the door and I asked him how the building was wired because I was afraid it would explode—I got attention immediately. I asked the doctor to test my blood for drugs—he thought I was crazy. I got an anti-psychotic drug but it sent my blood pressure through the roof. It took them a while to get me into a locked room; 20 minutes later they gave me another shot of the same drug. No change. Next, a shot of valium calmed me down. I let them take my blood and they found out I was critically low on potassium.
The Chantix website says that hyperkalemia or hypokalemia is a side effect, which means high or low levels of potassium. I found out that severe low potassium can cause psychosis. The symptoms are confusion, delusion and more. My friend is a nurse and she put two and two together. I was sent to the psychiatric hospital for observation—against my will—for two days. They refused to believe my symptoms had anything to do with Chantix and low potassium. But the ER doctor had made the connection with Chantix; however the psychiatric doctor disregarded his report.
Two days later I was home. I had one Chantix pill left and I am keeping it as evidence—I will never take Chantix again. And I started smoking again—all the craziness made me really stressed out and there was no way I could quit. I eventually quit cold turkey and there was nothing to it compared with Chantix."
Virginia says the one thing that really bothers her is the Institute for Safe Medical Practices (ISMP) third quarter report which says the following:
Psychiatric side effects: Varenicline (CHANTIX), a drug to help quit smoking, continued to account for more reports of serious psychiatric side effects than any other prescription drug. Despite a reduced number of adverse event reports for varenicline in the third quarter, this drug still ranked fourth among all prescription drugs for causing serious injury. Although the FDA and manufacturer have already warned consumers about the possible risk of suicidal behavior, the case reports also suggest a possible link to violence towards others. Table 2 provides the terms used in reports when describing this aggression and violence. Since the 2006 approval of varenicline, QuarterWatch has identified 30 cases that describe physical assaults, 148 cases that mention homicidal thoughts, and 331 cases of aggression. (One case could include multiple symptoms.)
"Pfizer, the manufacturer of Chantix, and the FDA have still not addressed violence toward others when taking this drug," says Virginia, "although they have focused on suicidal thoughts. I've been warning people about Chantix for 2 years now—it is poison. I am glad to get my story told and possibly help others—the withdrawal symptoms from Chantix are worse than nicotine and it's not worth the risk."
The list of side effects on the Chantix website is extensive, including:
"METABOLISM AND NUTRITION DISORDERS. Infrequent: Diabetes mellitus, Hyperlipidemia, Hypokalemia. Rare: Hyperkalemia, Hypoglycemia."
An out-of-balance potassium condition can lead to hyperkalemia or hypokalemia disorders. Potassium is an essential electrolyte macromineral; it is critical to the function of your nerves and muscles. Low levels of potassium can cause a host of serious problems including, "abnormal psychological behavior: depression, psychosis, delirium, confusion, or hallucinations." And very low levels of potassium can be life threatening.