Q. My husband and I both started taking Chantix last year so we could quit smoking. My husband is one of the calmest people I’ve ever met. He never even spanked my kids.
On the drug, he began losing his temper with me, getting angry and yelling at me over little things. I told him I thought the drug was causing him to have rage issues. He couldn’t understand what I was talking about because he felt justified for being mad.
There were also kidney problems. I was peeing all the time. He went in for a regular checkup and was diagnosed with kidney disease. He almost lost his job, since he is military.
I told him I thought it was the drug. He thought I was crazy. Then one day my teen daughter talked back to him. He pushed her into a wall–not real hard but it was still a push, from a man who had never been violent in the 16 years we have been married. That night he finally saw what the drug was doing to him and he broke down and cried.
He quit taking it the next day. His kidneys returned to normal within a week and everything is back to normal.
Never again will I take that drug. I almost lost the man I love to it.
A. Chantix (varenicline) is prescribed to help people stop smoking. Many find it works, but others discover that the side effects are intolerable. Hostility or depression may be a problem. Frequent urination, as you experienced, is a common side effect of the drug. Acute kidney damage is rare. How wise of you to recognize the ways this medication was affecting your relationship.
Although Chantix has been helpful for some, other readers have reported difficulties. Bonnie wrote: “I have been smoking on and off since I was 12 years old. Quitting is horribly hard so when I heard from friends about Chantix I was anxious to try it. I am normally a very happy person and quite easy going.
“After taking Chanix for 5 days, I realized I was feeling agitated at everyone and everything. The least thing made me very angry.
“During this time, I also found that cigarettes started tasting really nasty so I could understand why it could help a person quit. However, the side effect of anger and hostility made me quit taking it.”
MH reported: “I started taking Chantix early January 2011 because I promised my son I’d quit. After about two weeks on the drug my husband and I got into a disagreement and I ended up giving him a black eye and busting out his bad tooth. Rage and panic attacks were every day so I quit taking it.
“I figured it was just the stress of having to live with my in-laws so I stayed off of it until I left him and got my own place with my son. I’ve now been taking it for about two weeks and yeah I’m smoking like 1 cig a day but I’m having emotional outbursts and extreme rage again. I’ve got no stress in my life right now so it can’t be anything else.
“I’ve researched this and apparently Chantix is the drug on the top of the list of drugs that cause violent behavior including murder. Chantix worked very well for a friend of mine but now I wonder if part of the reason for her breakup with her fiancé was because of the Chantix.
“I would not recommend it to anyone. Please be careful. In fact I changed doctors right after I got the pills and my new doctor said he doesn’t prescribe it any more because of the side effects. He made me check in with him every week to see how I was doing.”
