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Feb 12, 2008 6:53 am US/Central
Magazine Writer's Chantix Experiences Detailed
Disturbing Dreams, Self-Destructive Fantasies Part Of His Weeks-Long Chantix Trip
NEW YORK (AP) ―
A new first-hand account reveals possible hidden dangers of the stop-smoking drug Chantix.
A writer for New York Magazine says he never believed stories that Dallas musician Carter Albrecht's death could've been blamed on Chantix until he tried the drug himself.
Derek de Koff says he started having strange dreams, then paranoia set in days into taking prescription.
Titled "My Brain on Chantix," de Koff chronicles his experience on the medication.
"I swallowed my first pill the next day before work. It was a beautiful fall morning, an almost obnoxiously cinematic day to turn over a new leaf. But by the time I was halfway to the office, I started to feel a slight nausea coming on. Of course, that is a common side effect, as are constipation, gas, vomiting, and changes in dreaming. These five symptoms were emblazoned in a large font on the patient-information sheet," he writes.
The article continues: "By night four, my dreams began to take on characteristics of a David Cronenberg movie. Every time I'd drift off, I'd dream that an invisible, malevolent entity was emanating from my air conditioner, which seemed to be rattling even more than usual. I'd nap for twenty minutes or so before bolting awake with an involuntary gasp. I had the uneasy sense that I wasn't alone."
On December 3, 2007, The Bolton News in the United Kingdom reported 39-year-old Omer Jama, a popular television editor, slashed his wrists just weeks after beginning a course of pills to help him quit smoking. That report came two months after the first CBS 11 News investigation into Chantix. In September, CBS 11 News uncovered thousands of adverse reactions to the drug reported to the FDA. And in late November, CBS 11 News reported the FDA and its UK counterpart, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MRHA), warned doctors to monitor patients on this anti-smoking medication for changes in behavior.
De Koff's story also included this line:"I smoked a cigarette, then tried going back to sleep. But each time I started napping, I'd dream that something increasingly ominous—carbon monoxide? Vampires?—was sucking vital essence out of me. Soon the clock on my desk read 3:20 a.m. The most unsettling thing about sleeping on Chantix is that I never felt like I was truly asleep."
You can read the full New York Magazine report here.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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