Champix (Page 1)

Yes, It is called Chantix and it is a wonder durg if you can tolerate it. This first week you can still smoke while taking it on the starter pak. But, once you get to the second week No, NO! If you docotor perscribes it for you, make sure you take it on a full stomach. It is a 12 week dosing and I hope you can tolerate it.

Lots of luck to you.

This stuff is amazing! Smoked for 22 years and I just stopped. Easy. Still feel like one from time to time, but the feeling passes. Just wait it out.

Hi nvzy5515
Did you stop in the first week - I am on day four and still have cravings

My doctor told me that it's all about willpower. Its all in the brain. He said to me if you really want to give up smoking champix will work but if there is any doubts you have about it or believe you don't want to give up smoking then champix won't work.n Hope this helps

I have just started on day 5 today. Wole up this AM with red rash on my neck and face and swelling around my eyes. According to instructions I got with it this is a possible side effect. My concern is will this go away as my body gets used to it, or what happens when I get to week 2 and double the dose?
If you have had this experience I would be interested in how it progresses.

You're supposed to go to the hospital buddy!

I don't know about the side effects, but Im interested in them. I am getting ready to talk to my doctor about getting that prescription.

Any advise on the side effects would be helpful.

Your doc will help you with that, but talk to the pharmacist when collecting the meds. They have all the answers and don't mind the time.

Okay I have been on it four times and you'd think I'd know better however I enjoy it too much. The first time we tried hypnotheraphy which lasted four years and then my husband was diagnosed with MND. I think Champix is great. I am actually having joint and muscular pain and getting angry. But I have to give it up for the last time. Stay with it. What I found especially helpful was a sylk counter which counted the days not smoked, the cost and savings. It was excellent and made it a challenge. Good luck everyone.

I am just in early stages, but aside from the rash I also experience nausea, kind of like when I took my first drag on a cigarette 45 years ago. It comes and goes but is not too severe. This is the most common effect listed. Next are: Vomiting, Trouble sleeping, headache, abnormal dreams, constipation, gas. Then under Serious side effects,but rare, is allergic reaction. This is what I am having and it says to talk to my doctor only if severe. So is severe when my eyes swell shut and I stop breathing? I will talk to pharmacist today. I have tried everything else to stop, so really want to stick with this.

hi peeps....ive been on champix now for 6 wks, ive also had side effects of headaches, lack of sleep, gas (it even disgusts me)....not going as regular i'e' constipation and the worst side effect i find is spots.....i had breathing probs in the initial 2 wks but i think that was the shock of air actually getting into my lungs instead of carbon monoxide.....ive probably smoked 20 ciggies daily for the last 30 yrs, tried most of the other 'stop smoking' remedies and obviously not succeeded, I ASKED FOR CHAMPIX BECAUSE I'D HEARD IT WAS THE BEST (and no i do not work for the company, lol)....if you can get over the initial nausea and then what evr side-effects ur gonna suffer....cos to be quite honest, it dont matter how long you've smoked basically you've messed your body up so all these side effects are a path to your body being smoke free....your body and immune system have been abused ...so you have to go thru abuse to try and rectify it....best thing ive tried....and ive only been stopped a month but im gonna stick with it ....loads better than zyban.....anyhows good luck to you all that wanna give up smoking......and you wanna give up cos it dont matter what product you take....it wont work without will-power....ciao 4 now

just wanna join in here and find out bit more. i am on my sixth day of taking champix and still smoking like a chimney. no major side effects so far bit am really scared of what is to come. some of yous have been very encouraging.

Best thing you will ever do !!! I didn't manage to stop until day 17 but that was fine just went with it until my head told me i didn't want to smoke anymore !!

It worked for me but alas I have started again...not as bad but still...the pills are expensive...over 100 bucks a month.

they are only $5.90 if you have a concession card or health care card

Yes but when I added mine up, It was roughly $62.per week and at
so 15 daily (a packet 30 over two days) at $18.00 a pack it came to $3276 a year. I hd to buy my chapix this time and while it was dear, it would pay for itself over a few weeks. Good luck.

I'm taking my third week of Chantix now and have a few side effects, like weird dreams, nausea, gas. But it gives me somehting to do while I'm not smoking. Just run to the bathroom and back.
Really, the side effects for me aren't bad and I am determined to quit.
You do have to have some willpower.

i know it has worked for a lot of people..good luck with it

Hi has anyone experienced what my husband is experiencing at the moment. Taken full course of Champix, sudden onset of feeling like all teeth are loose, gums swollen and painfull, now had to have 1 tooth out, others not feeling any better, scared to death will loose all teeth, NO probelms before medication, also had gastric problems and needed medication for the first time in his life and joint problems, shoulder, elbow and wrist...had to have steroid injections to ease pain. I feel quite guilty and sorry I pestered him to give up... any similar problems. thanks Bex

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Thanks for your patience!

Hi I am on my 6th week of taking Champix and have also notice my bottom teeth loose and one has become mishapen and very loose, nevermind the nausea feeling and the feeling of not having any purpose of life and why are we here depression signs. I am at the moment debating to come off them and know i will start smoking again. But anything has to be better than all this. Please don't pressure your hubby if the time is right he will do it with or without tablets.... now time to go to the shops to buy that pack of cigs and get my life back on track

Finished final course on Champix three weeks ago. No problem with teeth but since finishing the course I am suffering really bad bloating/gas retention. Haven't been back to the Doc about this yet but still off the smokes!

I was on it for 3 weeks. I got off it last week when i started feeling completely depressed on it, and could barely function at work. I'm an attorney, and I had a court appearance and actually snapped at the judge (which is a complete no no). I'm not myself yet. I cry every day for no reason, but I'm sleeping better (i take benadryl every night) and i don't have the whacky vivid dreams anymore. Something tells me that there's been permanent damage to our brains from this, and the FDA will announce it in another few years. We were guinea pigs.

we quit taking it because it made us feel ill...we took it for 2 months. arpy, I am afraid you are right, it will take a few years and then BAM!...lawsuits and all that...I think you are right about us being guinea pigs for the drug company!

I am (or was) going to join a smoking cessation treatment course. Chantix is the drug of choice. After reading about the caca that goes with this stuff, i am really having second thoughts. They were going to pay me, as i was going to be an experiment. Forget the $$$$. I can't handle not feeling well. What makes me think that i will have ALL the side effects is that i get sick to my stomach on anything stronger that Tylenol. I pulled a rotater cuff a few years ago. Doc put me on Vicadin. All i did was throw up. Had a bad toothach a few weeks ago, he put me a darvacet, same reaction. Now i am scared that this chantix will make me sick. I think i wuill try harder on my own. Thanks

bbfeet9, if darvacet made you sick to your tummy even when you ate then I think Chantix would definitely make you nauseous...and the experimental drug would almost for sure...think it over. It is SO hard to quit on your own but I am like you, baby stepps, one day at a time, etc. I am down to maybe 4 cigs a day. I take a puff, think about it, take another, it tastes and smells bad and I putt it out. I will smoke one cig about 4 times...just a puff to take the edge off then put it out and save it for next time. The $$$ of cigs is another good reason to quit.

Just wanted to let ppl kno that I had a very bad reaction to this drug.
I took the drug for 3 wks n quit smokin on the 27th of Oct well on the 2nd of Nov I was rushed to the local hospital with what they called a thunderclap of a headache n then I was sick to my stomach I passed out in my husband arms then started havin seizures. well they transferred me to another hospital where I didn't have a clue about anything. I was in there from the 2nd of Nov till the 14th they put me through many tests like EEG,SPINAL TAP,3 CAT SCANS ,plus MIR. Well on the 7th I ended up coming back home n between my husband n daughter they new I wasn't rite so they took me back n again this time they did another EEG n CATSCAN n they found a BRAIN BLEED plus INFLAMMATION of the vessels I also had a STROKE. I went through an anngiogram also. I wud never wanna go through anything like this again. Low n behold I have recovered very well to even what the DR's expected of me but they even said with a brain bleed I shudn't have survived this ordeal.

Hi I'm a new user. I have been taking Champix since Jan 8th. I quit on Jan. 21. I had all the side effects like, nausea, vomiting, trouble sleeping. The doctors told you that this was caused from the champix. Did you have any problems before you took the champix. I'm sorry you had to go through this. I'm glad you are okay now. Ive only been taking 1 a day for about a month now. It still seems to be working for me. I am going to eventually ween myself right off of them. Maggie6524 I hope you are feeling a lot bettert

Chantix does work from what I've seen from the patients that come to my pharmacy. It has a very high success rate. The only bad thing is that there have been case reports of people wanting to commit suicide when taking chantix. Mind you that percentage is very low. Nobody to date has actually committed suicide when taking chantix. So I think it's worth giving it a shot.

I have just started taking the second week course 1mg tablets and I am feeling very nauseas , I am throwing up and my lips feel tingly has this happened to anyone else and will it stop or should I stop taking them

My father and my family have become recent victims of the rare but severe adverse reactions linked to Champix in which my father had accidentally taken his own life during what appeared to be a major “psychotic event”. He had been drinking in combination with taking Champix which appears to have resulted in hanging himself in the garden shed. I had spoken to him only hours before and he was his usual happy self, just settling in for the night to watch some TV and have a few drinks. He was a contented happy man with everything going for him and everything to live for. He was happily married and had recently become a grandfather and was about to become one for the second time. With no financial worries and his working life nearing an end he was positively looking forward to his twilight years of watching his grand kids grow up and share his retirement with my mother, family and his wide circle of friends.

He had began taking Champix in early February and had reported to the family that he had suffered from some of the more common side-effects including vomiting, headaches and disturbed sleeping but did not elaborate on why he thought his sleep had been effected. On the 23rd of March 2008 his body was discovered by my brother at the family home. There was no note and there appears to have been no premeditation to the events. The authorities so far are treating his death as a “terrible accident” in which they believe there was no intent to end his life. In my opinion with the evidence that has been explained to me, he appears to have behaved completely out of character including damaging our home in a way that would be totally alien to my father given the pride he had in his home.

In my mind there is no doubt that these pills, which are designed to mimic the “high” from smoking by releasing dopamine which effects behaviour, had a huge part to play in my father’s premature death.

While I sympathise wholeheartedly with your story Mark and the adverse effects Champix had on you and your fathers life I would try not to let this put everyone off taking it as an aid to quit smoking.

In complete contrast to your story I have quit smoking now for 2 months using Champix and have not had any side effects. I guess if I am honest a slight bit of nausea in the first week or so but nothing that any normal person can't handle. I have tried to quit smoking using soo many other methods its too many to write. I bet if you ask i have tried it!! Champix has really helpded. I smoked for the first two weeks I was on them and decided to quit. Once I quit it was plain sailing and apart from maybe half a dozen slight cravings in two months that has been it. The other benefit I think from Champix is that in the past I had cravings to eat lots of chocolate, sweets, crips etc... and gained lots of weight. I am not sure if its co-incIdence or not but this time I had none of the food cravings and have actually lost weight. ALhtough I have been excersing as well, so that maybe a red herring!!

They say that only 2 in 10 suffer side effects and something like 1 in 1000 suffer serious side effects. The first week you take a lower dose and gradually build it. Give it a try and if you start suffering from side effects you can't handle then stop immediately.....

At not wishing to dismiss the concerns expressed by Mark and the bad experiences (bad experiences doesn't quite quantify it) I would urge people to give it a try. I felt completely the opposite, I felt relaxed, calm and totally in control. Never before have I found it so easy to say NO to a cigarette.

P.S. I was a smoker for 16 years on 20 a day.
P.P.S. I only hope that for every sad story like Marks there are hundreds of others like me......... My thoughts are with you and your family.