Comments on: New Problems for Anti-Smoking Drug Chantix

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Sat, 31 May 2008 20:16:00 +0000

A family friend was recently fired from his job, but not because he was neglecting his duties, or doing a bad job…he was fired because he became very agitated and he was having mood swings. At a morning meeting, he went from very calm to infuriated by what a supervior had said and stood up (in what they said ) was a threatening way and began yelling at him. I realize this is not proper behavior, but on the other hand he had been complaining of mood swings, becoming aggitated, depressed, and didn’t know why….come to find out he was taking Chantix for over a month (same time frame). Could this possibly be the reason? If so, was it fair that he was fired for an isolated incident? He also ( as I have read by others is experiencing nausea, dry mouth, his stomach is extended….????

By: judy

judy — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:00:41 +0000

I took Chantix for about 3 months. It did diminish my desire to smoke but I never quit altogether. I finally had to stop taking the drug because it made me extremely nauseas. Even though this only lasted for about 20 minutes it was a miserable 20 minutes. The less bothersome side effect was the vivid dreams. Boy, I had some doozies! It was like a movie projector going off in my head. Many times I would wake not really sure if I was dreaming. It also messed w/ my vision at times, making it blurry and hard to focus. But the nausea was the worst. So, $200 later, I’m back to smoking again. Now I’m having those vivid dreams again. Must be withdrawal. I think they should study this drug much more carefully. I don’t think they should be prescribing it at all until they conduct more studies.

By: judy

judy — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:54:08 +0000

I took Chantix for about 3 months and stopped taking it because it made me so nauseas. I also had very vivid dreams and sometimes I would wake up wondering if it was a dream or real. Particularly weird were conversations I would have with people in my dreams. However, the worst side effect was the extreme nausea which would fade after a few very uncomfortable minutes. I will say that Chantix diminished my desire to smoke but I can’t say that I quit completely. I was down to about 2 or 3 a day and there would be days where I didn’t smoke at all w/out any withdrawal. But then again, I was never that heavy a smoker. This fiasco cost be about 200 bucks and now I’m back to smoking again and the dreams have gotten really vivid again, I guess that is from withdrawal. I say any drug that messes with your head like that should be studied very very closely.

By: Lauren Rightenour

Lauren Rightenour — Sun, 25 May 2008 15:17:45 +0000

I too took Chantix. I was on the second phase of the pill, I had some problems, nausea, vivid dreams, the mood swings were really bad, I am a quiet private person but, one evening, I tried to beat up my sister-in-law. This is something I would never normally do. The thing that finally made me quit taking Chantx, and my doctor agreed was this. I have a heart condition, an irregular heartbeat, and, my heart will beat too fast. I was treated for the fast heartbeat a year before I started Chantix and things were fine. I was on medicine for the irregular beat but after a while on the Chantix the condition got so bad. The medicine I was on didn’t seem to work anymore. I thought I was going to need to go to the hospital. My doctor and I decided that as much as I need to quit smoking, Chantix wasn’t going to be the thing to help me quit. I was so frustrated because it was working that way. It wasn’t worth the risk to take this only to have a worse problem from the drug. I have no physical proof of this, only what I experienced. We checked my heart after the Chantix but the previous checks on my heart were a while back and I’m sure the “experts” would just say coincidence. Maybe so, but after I stopped the Chantix, and it took a while to happen, my heart isn’t as bad as it was on the Chantix.

By: Jan Stoy

Jan Stoy — Sat, 24 May 2008 16:59:29 +0000

T took Chantix for 2 weeks and was finally able to beat the habit, however it changed my personality. Nothing made me happy, very angry and depressed. Ended up vision problems, a tremor in my foot and thyroid problems and diabetes and a damaged liver. I don’t know what is ahead for me, but I will be able to breath while suffering all the side affects! The lesson that I have learned from this is beware of the cure-sometimes its worse that the disease. I should have waited until it was on the market for 4 or 5 years for all the side affects to be known because the drug companies manipulate the test findings.

By: S Nelson

S Nelson — Fri, 23 May 2008 00:03:17 +0000

I have been on Chantix for a month now and at first it was great, I immediately had no urge to smoke, I did have very vivid dreams but seemed to wake up feeling energized. but aftwr the 2nd week everything started to change, I started noticing headaches, extreme change in body temperature, when I would wake up suddenly feeling fatigued and achy also noticing my chest was red like my blood pressure was elevated. then i had been watching my diet during this and now my weight has gone up 5 pounds this past week. throat has been sore and swelling in my neck and lymph nodes around the jaw inflamed as well, I have noticed tingling in my left arm and hand along with aching in shoulder areas enough that I have taken aleve 3 times this week. Not to mention my moods have been low, and feeling sluggish. I went online tonight to see if anyone else had felt similar effects, and now after reading several I am stopping this medication Now! My advice think long and hard before using this drug.

By: Dax

Dax — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:08:58 +0000

Chantix is the best stop smoking treatment period! After trying the patch for four days and thinking my chest was going to collapse in on it’s self I went to Chantix and have been smoke free since. Only once in a while when I took the pill without first eating did I ever experience a slight nausea, but it quickly went away and I went about my business with no other adverse affects. For those of you who don’t quit using this pill, it is because you mentally did not want to quit anyway.

By: S. O'Neil

S. O'Neil — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:13:04 +0000

This is a shame. I smoked for over 31 years and could never quit no matter how hard I tried. I took the full 12 weeks of Chantix, suffered NONE of the side effects they mention and have been smoke free for more than 6 months.

By: rpretzel

rpretzel — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:04:56 +0000

Chantix is the best anti-smoking drug ever! I tried everything and never succeeded until Chantix. I took it for just a few weeks, never had any of the symptoms mentioned in the news stories, and I’ve never looked back. I’m 10 months smoke free and still going strong.

By: de clapsaDLE

de clapsaDLE — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:24:15 +0000

This drug did nothing for me. I stopped takin it due to the warning on the label. I do not recommend this to anyone. It only has a 40% succress rate and I really bet it is much lower if the truth ever comes out.
de