My husband tried to quit smoking using Chantix last summer. The next sum of that attempt was a depression so deep that he became suicidal, a 35 pound weight gain and finally a heart attach in December (as I have mentioned in another thread).

Since then, I have read numerous articles and heard multiple accounts of similar emotional effects of the drug. A member of the band for Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians was shot to death after going off the deep end one night after a couple of drinks (and it was just a couple) then getting violent with his girlfriend. After she managed to get him out of the house and lock the door he wandered over to a neighbors house and started banging on the door causing a real scare. The neighbor shot him dead. He had been on Chantix for about a couple of weeks at the time of the incident. From all accounts it was not at all in his nature to be violent or out of his mind like that and according to friends and family, this was completely out of character for him. His girlfriend viewed it like he had snapped and didn't realize what he was doing when the incident occurred. She said he was really out of it. But no one will ever know for sure.

I hope you're careful to watch for sudden mood changes. It can get hold of you fast. I noticed a change in my husband within days of him starting on the medicine. He suffers from depression, but not like what he experienced last year. There were times during the two 2-3 months he was on the Chantix that I thought I was going to come home to find him hanging from the rafters. I would call him several times in the afternoon after he got home from work (but before I did) just to make sure he was still alive. I was so scared for him that I finally made him stop taking it. The worst part about it was that while he recognized that he was depressed, he was so out of touch with his emotions that he didn't recognize just how bad he was until I demanded he come off the drug. Only afterward was he able to see how bad off he had become.

He says the next time he attempts to quit smoking, its going to be only after he starts to exercise and diet. Then he will go cold turkey. It's the only way to go, as far as I'm concerned.

I have worked in the field of respiratory therapy for enough years to realize that people are only going to quit when they are good and ready. They have to be done with the cigs in their own mind before they will succeed in quitting. I don't even preach to my patients about quitting. I tell them that when they are ready, I can provide info on smoking cessation, but that they need to come to that on their own.

Be careful and best of luck to you, Pen...