Smoking: Quitting Drug Not Linked To Heart Attacking, Depression

New findings published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine reveal that a highly effective drug that helps smokers quit doesn't increase their risk of heart attack or depression, as was once thought.

"Smokers typically lose three months of life expectancy for every year of continued smoking. Our research supports the use of varenicline as an effective and safe tool to help people quit," researcher Daniel Kotz said in a news release. 

A team of researchers at the University of Edinburgh noted how doctors can prescribe varenicline -- also known as ChampixTM or ChantixTM -- more widely to help people quit smoking after failing to find any evidence that varenicline has a negative effect on mental health. Furthermore, it also shows that taking the drug does not raise a individual's risk of heart disease.

In this recent study, researchers looked at anonymized health information from over 150,000 smokers across England. These participants had either been prescribed varenicline or another anti-smoking drug called bupropion to help them quit. Some were also using nicotine replacement therapy to help chuck the habit, including chewing gum, patches or lozenges, and all participants' progress was tracked for six months.

Findings revealed that people taking either varenicline or buproprion were no more likely to suffer from a heart attack than those using nicotine replacement therapy. Furthermore, they also found that these participants were not at a higher risk of self-harm or depression.

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