Comments on: Not smoking can kill

By: soveda

soveda — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:23:23 +0000

Now fixed, thanks, not sure how that happened, I had my BNF in front of me and still read it as Varencycline

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:03:08 +0000

It’s varenicline, not varenicycline.

By: soveda

soveda — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:23:18 +0000

I suspect that there is something rather complex going on and the reductionist “the drugs made me do it” is as simplistic as it always is.
There has always been a known link between starting antidepressant medication and an increase in suicidality, also the side effect of increased agitation in the early stages of SSRI treatment may have an impact. There has been a suggestion that smoking masks depression and that there is a link between smoking cessation and depression anyway.
There may be some retrospective confirmation bias due to the media coverage, or we may be seeing a common final pathway.

By: Neuroskeptic

Neuroskeptic — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:03:45 +0000

There’s something odd about all these drugs causing suicide – Champix, SSRIs, rimonabant, anti-epileptics – it’s implausible to me that all of these pharmacologically diverse drugs could all cause suicidal ideation as a straightforward adverse effect. Surely there must be something more complicated going on here – maybe some kind of psychological effect whereby people who are already suicidal are more willing to express their feelings if they feel able to attribute them to an external agent? Stranger things have happened…