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Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc., March 2015 fhea.com
Chantix May Lower Alcohol Tolerance,
Increase Seizure Risk
The FDA is warning that the smoking cessation med-
ication varenicline (Chantix) may lower tolerance to
alcohol and is linked to a rare risk for seizures. The
agency has changed the medication's labeling to
reflect these concerns and is advising that until pa-
tients know how varenicline affects their ability to
tolerate alcohol, they should decrease the amount of
alcohol that they drink. The FDA further warns that
patients who have seizures while taking varenicline
should stop the medication and seek medical atten-
tion immediately.
The warning is based on a case series submitted
to the FDA by Pfizer, the manufacturer of varenicline,
along with cases in the agency's adverse event re-
porting database that de-
scribed patients who
drank alcohol during
varenicline treatment
and experienced adverse
reactions. Some patients
experienced decreased tol-
erance to alcohol, including
increased drunkenness and un-
usual or aggressive behavior, or had
memory loss. The FDA also reports that its review of
the medical literature and their database identified
cases in which patients who had seizures while tak-
ing varenicline either had no history of seizures or
had a seizure disorder that had been well controlled.
In most cases the seizures occurred within the first
month of starting varenicline, the FDA noted.
The medication's labeling has also been updated
to include information about studies that investigat-
News Briefs
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ontinued from page 17
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