Chantix Patient Knew She Would Die

Grand Rapids, MIHer name is Valerie and she's a sales rep in Michigan. She is 55 years old and like many people of her generation she is a smoker. She is also a survivor—a survivor of Chantix danger.

In December of 2007, Valerie thought that kicking the habit would be a wonderful Christmas present for her friends and family who didn't smoke. It also happened that there was this wonderful miracle drug on the market put out by Pfizer called Chantix, that was as close to a magic bullet for the frustrated smoker as anything that had come along before, or since.

So Valerie gave Chantix a try.

Chantix works by preventing nicotine from reaching the specific neuro receptors of the brain that release dopamine, the chemical that is responsible for the sensation of pleasure. The idea was that if a smoker suddenly derived little, or no pleasure from the act of smoking, it would be that much easier to give up.

Valerie reveals that "my body was told it was getting no 'feel-good feeling' when it had a cigarette. Unfortunately for me, it got no 'feel-good feeling' from anything else I did, either."

By Day 4 of the Chantix regimen, Valerie describes herself as severely depressed. By coincidence that was the day, Valerie says that she was supposed to increase the Chantix dosage—which only heightened her gloom. "I didn't realize the depression was anything but seasonal for winter. It didn't lift when the sun came out."

A chat with a good friend briefly lifted her spirits, but the funk continued into the second week. It was almost Christmas. She chalked up her feeling of melancholy to the pending Yuletide, but she most certainly was not feeling herself while on Chantix.

"Saturday, the 15th, I was cleaning house and getting things in order," Valerie says. "This is not me. I clean, OR I put things in order. I do them as rarely as possible because I like to have better things to do [with my time] than clean or do books. I don't do both at once.

"All of a sudden I realized I was doing both. I thought, 'now why am I doing all this?' The answer startled me. 'I am killing myself tonight,' was what I heard in my head. It was just that factual; not emotional, just the facts. I was actually surprised. Standing there at the sink was the first I knew it."

Standing at the sink, Valerie knew that she was in danger. "I wouldn't see dawn if I didn't get some help." She again turned to intimate friends, who rallied around her and got her through the night and another hard day.

The pep talk, says Valerie, also motivated her to work through her malaise and do some research on the very drug that seemed to be running a parallel to her depressed emotional state.

What she found were a series of on-line articles linking Chantix with the possibility of suicide and depression. Having stopped the medication on her own accord two days prior, Valerie took her newfound knowledge with regard to how Chantix worked and began chowing down on just about every dopamine, and seretonin-producing food she could get her hands on in an effort to eat her way out of her depression.

It worked. "In three days I was more cheerful again and moving on down the road but I have seen that some were not so lucky."

Valerie admits that Chantix appeared to work for two of her friends. But it didn't work for Valerie. She is back to smoking again. "But I am here to do it. I guess if God wants me to quit, He will find a way I can.

"…be aware that if you feel even a little dark, that you need to see your doctor right away."

Since it's introduction to the market just a few short years ago, Chantix has been deluged with reports of depression, agitation, suicide ideation and actual suicides. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) continues to monitor Chantix and has warned both health care professionals and the public at large as to the risks of the smoking cessation aid. To give Chnatix its due, it should be noted that the attempt to quit smoking and the symptoms of nicotine withdrawl can worsen pre-existing psychosis.

That said, it doesn't explain why patients who had no pre-existing emotional, or psychiatric issues suddenly experienced problems after begininng a Chantix regimen.

Valerie gets the last word on Chantix today…

"This stuff is sneaky. It only works on the body. If you are not watching for it then you can get surprised by the speed it works to depress your system and next thing you know your smoking is cured…because you're dead…and [you] didn't see it coming."