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Chantix: Stop-smoking medication to help you quit
Smokers who want to stop smoking may consider varenicline (Chantix). Find out if this stop-smoking drug is right for you.
By Mayo Clinic staffCigarette smokers who want to quit have several medications to choose from to help in their effort to stop smoking. Chantix works by blocking the effect that nicotine has on your brain. Chantix may make it easier for you to stop smoking. To be successful, you still need persistence and commitment to your goal.
How is Chantix different from other stop-smoking aids?
When you smoke, the nicotine from your cigarette causes receptors in your brain to release several chemicals, including dopamine, which cause many of the positive feelings you get when you smoke. When you quit smoking, the lower levels of these chemicals cause the sometimes miserable signs and symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Signs and symptoms such as irritability, insomnia and difficulty concentrating begin four to six hours after your last cigarette and can last a month or more after you quit smoking.
Nicotine replacement products, including the patch, gum and lozenges, and bupropion (Zyban), can help you stop smoking, in part, by continuing to stimulate the release of low levels of dopamine and other chemicals in your brain. In this way, these stop-smoking medications decrease your craving for nicotine and reduce the signs and symptoms of withdrawal.
Chantix works in this way, too. Chantix stimulates the release of low levels of dopamine and other chemicals in your brain to help reduce the signs and symptoms of withdrawal. In addition, Chantix blocks nicotine receptors in your brain. So if you lapse and have a cigarette, your cigarette doesn't stimulate your brain's receptors the way it did in the past. Cigarettes become much less pleasurable, and your desire to return to regular smoking again may be reduced.
How do you take Chantix?
For best results, it's recommended that you start taking Chantix a week before your quit date. Doctors prescribe the pill for 12 weeks — once a day at first, then twice a day. Gradually increasing the dose helps reduce the chance of side effects. If you've remained smoke-free after 12 weeks, your doctor may consider prescribing an additional 12 weeks of Chantix to improve your chances of remaining smoke-free.
Note: Be sure to tell your doctor about any history of psychiatric illness before taking Chantix. Chantix may worsen a psychiatric illness even if it's currently under control. It may also cause an old psychiatric illness to recur.
Next page(1 of 2)
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- Public health advisory: Important information on Chantix (varenicline). U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/CDER/Drug/advisory/varenicline.htm. Accessed Dec. 11, 2008.
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- Dale LC (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Dec. 19, 2008.
