Anti-smoking drugs linked to mental illness
Regulators are considering stronger warnings about popular anti-smoking drugs, with statistics revealing 400 psychiatric disturbances linked to the drug Zyban in recent years.
A Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) spokeswoman says the agency plans to update information given to consumers about Zyban and another drug, Champix.
Last week, US authorities last week ordered the manufacturers to place warnings inside the packets.
But public health expert professor Simon Chapman has told 702 ABC Sydney that smokers are more likely to have mental health problems to begin with.
“It may be that smoking’s something that people with mental health problems … do more than people who don’t smoke,” he said.
“So that population group is going to have a background of incidents of mental health problems and it could be that some of these reports are reports about mental health episodes that may have happened anyway.”
There is currently no warning for Champix on the TGA website.
Copyright © Abc
