Chantix: "I Started To Get Really Depressed"

Superior, WIVictoria H. says she had no idea that Chantix could have been responsible for her suicide attempt. In fact, it was not until a month later, when her friend phoned her with information about Chantix, that Victoria had any idea that her suicide attempt could have been caused by the anti-smoking medication.

"I went to a family doctor to get a prescription for Chantix," Victoria says. "A week later, I woke up one morning and swallowed a bottle of muscle relaxants. I was taken in an ambulance to the hospital and on life support, in a coma, for two days. I woke up and was put in the psych ward for five days. No one said that my suicide attempt might be related to using Chantix.

"I started to get really depressed when I was taking Chantix. I had a lot going on in my mind for a long time, but I would never have tried to kill myself. It really intensified within a couple of days of taking the Chantix. It was kind of sudden—I didn't plan on doing anything, I just woke up and thought, 'I'm going to take these muscle relaxants.' I didn't have control.

"I had strange dreams—that was the only thing that my doctor told me would happen. I didn't know about the suicide attempts. No doctors suggested it to me; I had no warning about it. I've had some depression before but it's never gone to that point. It's never been that bad. I had no control over what I was thinking or doing. It [taking the pills] was just an idea in my head and I don't know where it came from.

"I'm really bothered that I didn't have any kind of warning. I'm a single parent with two children at home. That makes it a big deal in my eyes. My mom was in the hospital and they told her it didn't look good for me. She was starting to make arrangements in case I didn't survive."

Victoria is lucky that she did survive. After taking the muscle relaxants, she lay down on her couch with her iPod and closed her eyes. She opened her eyes shortly after and saw a paramedic (her neighbor had phoned an ambulance). After that, Victoria fell into a coma from which she did not wake until the following night.

At the request of the FDA, Pfizer has updated the prescribing information about Chantix to include warnings about serious side effects including:

• Chantix may cause worsening of a current psychiatric illness and may cause an old psychiatric illness to reoccur;

• Patients and their families should be alert to changes in mood and behavior in patients taking Chantix;

• Doctors should be alerted to changes in a patient's mood and behavior when that patient is taking Chantix.

Patients are now investigating the possibility of a class action lawsuit against Pfizer, alleging the company did not properly alert patients to the risks associated with Chantix, including the risk of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and worsening of psychiatric illness.