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Quitting smoking:
varenicline causes myocardial infarction

When a drug treatment seems advisable to help a paient quit smoking, nicotine remains the drug of reference.

The October issue of la revue Prescrire reports on new evidence of the adverse effects of varenicline, a drug sold to help smokers quit.

In April 2007, the European Medicines Agency reported that myocardial infarction had been observed in patients taking varenicline. Back in 2006, Prescrire reported severe cardiac events occurring during clinical trials, as well as cardiac arrhythmia, a bit more frequently than with placebo. Similarly, a report by the United States Food and Drug Administration emphasised the possibility of varenicline’s cardiac toxicity in the long term.

The evidence currently available for nicotine, in any form, shows no increase in cardiovascular risk.

When it seems appropriate to use a drug to quit smoking, it is better to keep to nicotine.

©Prescrire, 1 November 2007

Source: "Varenicline : infarctus du myocarde" Rev Prescrire 2007; 27 (288): 746.

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