Anti-Smoking Drugs Carry Mental Health Warnings

Posted on July 18, 2009 in Consumer Goods, Health & Medicine

The battle to stop smoking just got slightly more difficult, since the Food and Drug Administration announced that two anti-smoking drugs will carry warnings about severe mental health problems.

Chantix and Zyban are two popular anti-smoking drugs linked to depression and suicidal thoughts. The drugs also have been reported to cause changes in behavior that range from hostility to agitation. The FDA is mandating that Pfizer Inc., maker of both drugs, carry out a study on how often these symptoms occur.

Pfizer last updated the drug labels in 2007 to include a warning about neuropsychiatric symptoms. Since Chantix was approved in 2006, there have been reports of 98 suicides and 188 attempted suicides. Zyban has had reports of 14 suicides and 17 attempts, and already contained a box warning about the increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior

Some of the symptoms could be attributed to nicotine withdrawal. However, the FDA said that people using the drugs experienced the same effects while they were still smoking.