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TUESDAY, July 4 (HealthDay News) -- The drug Chantix (varenicline) quadruples a smoker's odds of kicking the habit, and is twice as effective as another smoking-cessation drug, Zyban (bupropion), according to three studies published in the July 5 Journal of the American Medical Association.
Chantix, which won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval May 11, also greatly decreases smokers' likelihood of relapse in the first six months after quitting, one of the studies found.
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The research -- much of which was presented in November at an American Heart Association meeting and all of which was funded by the drug maker, Pfizer Inc. -- is encouraging, experts said, because smokers have little that's pharmacologically useful in helping them to quit.
But an editorial that accompanies the three JAMA studies warns that much of the hype around the new drug may be unwarranted, because Chantix remains a far-from-perfect means of quitting smoking.
Whenever a new smoking-cessation aid gets FDA approval, "there is often unbridled enthusiasm regarding the potential to solve the problems associated with smoking," wrote Robert Klesges and colleagues at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, in Memphis.
That enthusiasm may not be merited, they added. While Chantix does appear to perform better than either a placebo or Zyban, high rates of both side effects and treatment failure mean the drug "definitely is not a panacea for smoking cessation," the Tennessee experts concluded.
Chantix works in a way that's distinct from either nicotine-replacement methods -- such as the popular patches or gums -- or Zyban, which helps inhibit the reuptake by neurons of addiction-linked brain chemicals such as dopamanine and norepinephrine. Instead, the pill works by stimulating the release of dopamine, to reduce cravings, while simultaneously blocking brain cell receptors that help sustain addiction.
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