There has been a bit of a back and forth lately between Nurse K and Mother Jones about a study involving using Chantix on PTSD patients. I don't know much about the actual study, and I'm far too busy (read: playing too much Mario Kart Wii) to read up on it properly, but I can't resist throwing my two cents in this ring where it concerns Chantix and its side effects.I was working at a pulmonology clinic when Chantix came out and sat in on several presentations from the drug reps about it (always take the drug rep lunches with a grain of salt). Since that time I have worked in a HMO clinic and Urgent Care Center and now in the ER. In all that time I have seen dozens and maybe even hundreds of people taking Chantix. For a few, it didn't work. For the other 90 percent, it worked like a miracle.
Number of people I have seen who have complained of serious side effects: 0.
Granted this is a very unscientific survey, and I've read the stories about the side effects and the chance of very real problems.
But if we are going to pull yet another miracle drug from the market or over-regulate it, while a 16 year old can buy alcohol from the corner market with a fake ID, and have even worse side effects occurring much more commonly (how often do we see psychotic and/or suicidal patients in the ER after pulling a few swigs off the old keg?), then I'll know we have gone completely and hypocritically bonkers.
And by the way, peeps, it's ChantIX, not ChantRIX, which every patient alive seems to say (kind of like Atenonol)
Image borrowed from peoplespharmacy.com. Found via Google Image Search.
Technorati Tags: Chantix, Smoking, Nursing, Quit Smoking, Miracle Drugs, Alcohol, Side Effects
3 comments:
Oh yes, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I remember about the story that really put this in the news:
The singer who was supposedly shot because of Chantix was actually shot by his neighbor as a "warning shot"... through the front door of his house.
Some warning.
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