STOP SMOKING MEDICINE:NEW DRUG CHANTIX MAY BE MORE THAN JUST SMOKE:MARK TWAIN WAS JUST PLAIN WRONG
STOP SMOKING MEDICINE:NEW DRUG CHANTIX MAY BE MORE THAN JUST SMOKE:MARK TWAIN WAS JUST PLAIN WRONG
CHANTIX MAY BE A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN THE WAR ON SMOKING
Mark Twain said "I will grant, here, that I have stopped smoking now and then, for a few months at a time, but it was not on principle, it was only to show off." Mark Twain 70th Birthday Speech. He was a cigar smoker but since Twain's day the evidence on the danger of smoking has accumulated to such an extent that even he would have had to agree that smoking is so dangerous that only a fool would do it. He might have penned a ditty such as "A fool and his money are soon parted but a fool and his cigarette are soon departed". But enough of my attempts at poetry.
Chantix is a medication to stop smoking. Preliminary reports seem to suggest that it may actually be a valuable new weapon in the war on cigarette smoking. For one thing, Chantix works by a different mechanism than the previous smoking cessation drugs. "The active ingredient in Chantix, varenicline tartrate, is a new molecular entity that received a priority FDA review because of its significant potential benefit to public health. Chantix acts at sites in the brain affected by nicotineand may help those who wish to give up smoking in two ways: by providing some nicotine effects to ease the withdrawal symptoms and by blocking the effects of nicotine from cigarettes if they resume smoking. FDA Approves Novel Medication for Smoking Cessation
"Cigarette smoking is a very difficult habit to break due in large part to nicotine dependence or addiction" said Dr. Steven Galson, Director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "Chantix therapy has proven to be effective in smokers motivated to quit and will provide another tool for physicians to use for the millions of smokers who want to quit."
The effectiveness of Chantix in smoking cessation was demonstrated in six clinical trials, which included a total of 3659 chronic cigarette smokers who were treated with varenicline. Five of the six studies were randomized, controlled clinical trials in which Chantix was shown to be superior to placebo in helping people quit smoking. These smokers had previously averaged 21 cigarettes a day for approximately 25 years. In two of the five placebo-controlled studies, Chantix-treated patients were also more successful in giving up smoking than patients treated with Zyban (bupropion).
The approved course of Chantix treatment is 12 weeks. Patients who successfully quit smoking during Chantix treatment may continue with an additional 12 weeks of Chantix treatment to further increase the likelihood of long-term smoking cessation. In clinical trials, the most common adverse effects of Chantix were nausea, headache, vomiting, flatulence (gas), insomnia, abnormal dreams, and dysgeusia (change in taste perception)."
Chantix is manufactured by Pfizer. Pfizer has been cutting jobs to help their balance sheet and this drug isn't likely to stem the tide but it might at least slow the waves down.
