Champix could be prescribed for alcoholism

Champix (Chantix in the US) has shown 'promise' as a treatment for alcohol dependency. This is light blogging for a few days, but the link is here, and no mention is made of reports of side effects including depression, suicidal ideation and actual suicides other than a link to another report that denies any such effects.

Reports on adverse side effects are wide ranging. There are also less than flattering reports on its effectiveness as a smoking cessation therapy.

Calls for e-cigarettes to be banned while Champix remains on sale

Michael Siegel asks quite fairly why Champix, known to have links with psychotic, suicidal episodes and worse, is freely available, when certain anti-smoking groups have called for the banning of e-cigarettes, which have no documented safety record or pending lawsuits on behalf of users.

He shows links between the US anti-smoker groups and pharmaceutical giants including Pfizer, which manufactures Champix. He also addresses the ideology of anti-smokers (popularly tagged 'quit or die'). Your quitting aid mustn't even look like a cigarette or it doesn't count:

The ideology is simply this: nothing that looks like cigarette smoking can possibly be a good thing, even if it saves lives. People need to quit smoking the way we say they should quit smoking. There is a right way and a wrong way to quit smoking. The right way is our way and the wrong way is any other way. If it looks like smoking, it's still smoking, even if there are no adverse health effects and the individual has achieved smoking cessation. 

 His logic is persuasive:

If anti-smoking groups want to argue that any smoking cessation product on the market has to first be unequivocally proven safe, then fine. They can argue that e-cigarettes should be removed from the market but they must also call for Chantix to be pulled from the market for the same reason.

Alternatively, if they believe that the burden of proof is on others to demonstrate that Chantix is unsafe before pulling it from the market, then that's fine too. But then they must apply the same reasoning to electronic cigarettes and ask that these products remain on the market until such time as they are demonstrated to be unreasonably unsafe.

More on Champix here.

Scottish Champix widow sues Pfizer

Champix was approved for use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium in January 2007. By 2008 BBC Scotland was reporting alleged bizarre, threatening and suicidal behaviour on the part of people who took the drug, and lawsuits were beginning in the US.

Brian McLinden died just over a year ago and it's been reported that his wife Patricia will also sue Pfizer.

It's odd that stories of sudden and traumatic death, and distressing behaviour, are considered to be a price worth paying for a lower smoking rate.

It didn't take public pressure to get rid of smoking in bars. It took a government-funded pressure group. But years of documented agony (and a non-too-impressive success rate) requires hundreds of people to take legal action before this drug is properly investigated and taken off the prescription lists. People stopped smoking before this drug came on the market and they will continue to give up after it's been dumped.

Nicotine receptors in the brain: Of Champix and vaccines

As the scale of the radiation disaster in Japan becomes clear we learn that a nicotine vaccine is on the way. Just what the doctor ordered.

Comparisons with Champix should raise alarm bells (see link from Dick Puddlecote's post). Champix works by attaching itself to and blocking nicotine receptors in the brain. As a side effect, it can also block serotonin receptors in the brain, as described here by lawyers involved in Champix litigation. Champix has been banned for use by pilots for many years now. The risk of adverse consequences is very well known.

Much as I distrust antis, I can't go along with the idea that they have produced a drug that would block smokers from experiencing any pleasure at all. Even although some people find it hard to believe it, parts of the brain do respond to nicotine specifically, and it is these receptors that the manufacturers of Champix have attempted to block.

Smokers are, however, expected to accept a fair risk that they will react badly to Champix. And that doesn't just mean a sore head. If you're unlucky, the Champix blocks your seratonin receptors too:

Varenicline, the active ingredient of Chantix, has only one significant side effect: it also has an affinity for the 5-HT3 serotonin receptor. If the varenicline binds to this serotonin receptor, the serotonin response, like the nicotine response, is inhibited. Serotonin regulates several stress hormones, so an inhibition of serotonin reception can lead to side effects like nausea, headaches, anxiety disorders, and changes in libido and appetite, similar to side effects seen for SSRI antidepressants.

There is no shortage of warnings and stories on the internet on this drug.

ASH Scotland, perhaps uniquely, tells us 'there is emerging evidence that varenicline is safe and effective for people with mental health problems'. Not by my definition of the word 'safe', there isn't.