Drug helping 75% of smokers to quit
10:35am Monday 18th August 2008
Comments (92)
By Barry Nelson »
UP to 75 per cent of North-East smokers are successfully quitting thanks to a drug that was only approved for use by the NHS last year.
Stop-smoking teams working for County Durham and Darlington Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are now helping more than seven out of ten smokers give up by using a drug called Champix.
This is much higher than the official “quit rate” for the area of 50 per cent, which includes patients who had used nicotine chewing gum and patches and a drug called Zyban. This high rate could be replicated across the whole region, but not every area has followed County Durham and Darlington PCTs in allowing Champix to be prescribed as a first-line treatment for smokers.
Champix is a twice-a-day pill which is the first effective drug to help people give up smoking and does not contain nicotine.
It has been prescribed in County Durham and Darlington since December 2006 – well ahead of its official adoption by the NHS in July last year.
It works by partly blocking nicotine receptors, but still providing the brain with a trickle of a feel-good substance called dopamine.
Darcy Brown, health improvement lead for tobacco for County Durham and Darlington trusts, said: “Champix has worked very effectively, which is great news for the people of County Durham and Darlington.
We were one of the first areas in the country to start using this in December 2006 and we are having great success with it.”
While the overall quit rate for County Durham and Darlington NHS Stop Smoking Services was 50 per cent in the financial year 2007-8, this rose to 63 per cent among patients who used Champix.
But Mr Brown said in the hands of specialist stop smoking teams the quit rate was much higher.
“If you look at the use of Champix by specialist stopsmoking services, we are averaging a quit rate in the mid- 70s,” he said.
“We are getting a lot of word-of-mouth interest,” he added.
In the last financial year 6,497 people in County Durham and Darlington declared they had given up smoking after going on an NHS course.
This represented a three per cent increase on the previous year.
Stop-smoking teams run by primary care trusts in South Tyneside, Gateshead and Sunderland can only prescribe Champix when other treatments fail, but this policy is currently under review.
Your Say YourNorth-East
soapy, rainworth says...
1:09pm Mon 18 Aug 08
http://www.nursingti
mes.net/clinicalnews
/2008/07/suicide_war
ning_over_stopsmokin
g_drug.html
http://abcnews.go.co
m/Blotter/story?id=5
180437&page=1
http://www.stripes.c
om/article.asp?secti
on=104&article=56690
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
1:26pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Your nursing times link is an old one from last December. Here's one from this month which puts the side effects into context.
http://www.nursingti
mes.net/This_weeks_i
ssue/2007/12/depress
ion_alert_for_smokin
g_drug.html
soapy, rainworth says...
1:43pm Mon 18 Aug 08
DaveA, Room101 says...
1:55pm Mon 18 Aug 08
I wish anyone the best of luck in giving up smoking. If you are thinking about or on the verge of quitting the most effective way is by reading Allen Carr's, The Easy Way to Give Up Smoking. It costs about £4.50 and has a 53% success rate and is a lot cheaper than all the nicotine replacement drugs for the hard pressed taxpayer. Also Paul McKenna's Quit Smoking Now is also worth a read. The advantages these books have is they mentally help you deal with the cravings without resorting to the drugs.
I have no interest in giving up smoking, but one tip from Paul McKenna's book I use when I have to go for a long journey, is consentrate on a particularly happy time in your life for 5 minutes and at the end pinch your ear. Whenever you get the cravings pinch your ear to remind yourself. It might sound a bit silly but it does work.
One point and one request to finish with. I hope you have given up because YOU want to, not because of nannying and bulling from ASH and the government.
Please, when you have given up don't become one of the born again anti smokers. Please keep your tolerance.
DaveA, Room101 says...
2:07pm Mon 18 Aug 08
"Following a complaint by Allen Carr’s Easyway International, Deborah Arnott and ASH now acknowledge that it was wrong for Ms Arnott to have made the comments relating to the 53% success rate and have issued an unreserved apology.
ASH has agreed to pay the legal costs incurred by Allen Carr’s Easyway."
http://allencarr.com
/central/article/133
/ash-apologise-to-al
len-carrs-easyway
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
2:15pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Ash are not my mates.
Soapy
It is MUCH safer than smoking. (except possibly in the alternative universe inhabited by your cult, where smoking is harmless, even good for you according to some members)
soapy, rainworth says...
2:48pm Mon 18 Aug 08
MRab2, says...
3:11pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Champix has resulted in at least seven deaths that I know about within months of starting on the drug. This represents a level of lethality tobacco can't even come close to touching.
As pointed out by DaveA, champix, with it's possibly lethal side effects is still less than half as effective than the Allen Carr method - at £4.50 for the book have you ever stopped to wonder why the NHS pushes the MUCH more expensive, but less effective drug route on people who go to them asking for help to quit?
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
3:29pm Mon 18 Aug 08
How lethal is smoking tobacco?
Soapy, I meant you are part of a cult, not that you are a cult
soapy, rainworth says...
3:35pm Mon 18 Aug 08
if you want lethality then traffic fumes have quoted by hmg as being 60 times more dangerous than cigarette smoke what do you propose we do about that Robbie? ban cars and traffic perhaps save a few hundred thousand lives that way won't it?
MRab2, says...
3:45pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Given that a few dozen doses of whatever's in champix can kill you within a few weeks or months compared to tobacco; several tens of thousands of doses over decades - champix is more toxic than tobacco and thus less safe.
As to your question; who knows? The current figure is based on an algorithm, the origins of which are unclear and the accuracy of which is unknowable.
dbwb, says...
3:59pm Mon 18 Aug 08
You do realise, of course, that giving up for as little as two weeks is the government benchmark for successfully quitting? I wonder how many of these were serial quitters or those who said they'd not smoked for 2-4 weeks, then relapsed?
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
4:02pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Did Champix kill these people?
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
4:15pm Mon 18 Aug 08
I'm not going to respond to you anymore until you retract your dangerous lie - "The Cot Death Foundation has said htat there is no relationship between smoking and SIDS"
soapy, rainworth says...
4:26pm Mon 18 Aug 08
soapy, rainworth says...
4:32pm Mon 18 Aug 08
http://www.inthenews
.co.uk/news/science/
new-pollutant-mirror
s-smoking-damage-$12
36769.htm
spaghetti skin, lancs says...
5:52pm Mon 18 Aug 08
I myself not being affilliated to any pro smoking organisations but I do try to be balanced in my condemnation of all matters good and bad, which means I read all articles on the smoking ban in order to write a book on the subject at some point in the future and I would like to interpret both sides of the argument from a fair and unbiased perspective. I appreciate that this is an emotive subject and tht propaganda from both sides will attempt to sway it's conclusion but If I'm being honest, the the pro choice element of the argument seems to be winning the truth aspect. By this I mean that it appears to be easier to find expert evidence that that suggests smoking is much less dangerous than the no smoking lobbyists would have us believe. I have found a huge amount of opinion and scaremongering but very little genuine collaborated scientific study, there are fantastic claims about the damage being done and the benefits of being smokefree but no real evidence, just conjecture. However I will continue with my quest to find the truth whatever that may be, and as you seem to have a bee under your bonnet about this issue, may I suggest you view the other argument with equal zeal and read the articles in the following links. Thank You.
http://www.thehealth
ierlife.co.uk/natura
l-health-articles/he
althy-living/anti-sm
oking-pill-side-effe
cts-00362.html
http://www.telegraph
.co.uk/news/worldnew
s/1570791/Probe-into
-Champix-link-to-sui
cide.html
http://www.thehealth
ierlife.co.uk/natura
l-health-articles/he
althy-living/champix
-side-effects-quit-s
moking-01005.html
http://www.fda.gov/b
bs/topics/NEWS/2008/
NEW01788.html
http://www.airport-i
nt.com/news/2008/05/
22/air-traffic-contr
ollers-banned-from-u
sing-chantix
soapy, rainworth says...
6:11pm Mon 18 Aug 08
I wish you every success in your endeavor.
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
6:56pm Mon 18 Aug 08
soapy, rainworth says...
7:17pm Mon 18 Aug 08
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
7:28pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Did you come here via freedom2choose?
The ECHO doesn't circulate in Lancs
Spanner, Channel Isles says...
8:02pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Do you do even the most basic fact checking before you run your anti-smoking stories?
Even a cursory look a schoolboy is capable of could raise deep concerns about you peddling Pfizers Champix/Chantix drug in your paper.
It has 3,000 known side-effects. Subscriptions in America have crumbled because it is so dangerous including heart seizures, involuntary muscle spasms, depressive and suicidal thoughts.
"Among the psychological side effects reported to the FDA were 28 suicides, 41 cases of homicidal thinking, 224 reports of heart trouble, 525 reports of hostility or aggression, and 397 cases of possible psychosis. There were also 173 serious injuries, including traffic accidents often associated with unconsciousness, dizziness, muscle spasms, or mental confusion." (Source. Bloomberg)
Here's some more (basic) schoolboy research for you. Try doing some before getting on your public soapbox touting a dangerous drug as "a success" and take some responsibility for what you peddle.
Pfizer's Chantix Tied to 3,000 Side Effects Reports
Bloomberg. http://tinyurl.com/5
52xcs
Louisiana trucker on Chantix and woman passenger, almost lose their lives.
Los Angeles Times. http://tinyurl.com/6
5qqab
FDA issues warning about Chantix.
US Food & Drug Administration. http://tinyurl.com/5
zvww2
MRab2, says...
8:24pm Mon 18 Aug 08
robbithesmoggie wrote:Yup.
Did Champix kill these people?
If you want to argue that point because the victims actually committed suicide (due to sever depression - a known side effect of champix) then I demand you stop banging on about how dangerous smoking is, as there is no causal evidence to suggest smoking kills - there's plenty of correlation but not ONE SINGLE DEATH can be directly and verifiably attributed to smoking.
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
11:08pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Why does the thought of people giving up smoking terrify you so much?
soapy, rainworth says...
11:37pm Mon 18 Aug 08
spaghetti skin, lancs says...
12:05am Tue 19 Aug 08
No Sir I came here via the internet, we do have the internet in bolton believe it or not, which if you had read my post you would have realised that I read many things as part of my research. Why?
are you paranoid that they may be out to get you. I am sure the doctor could prescribe something
for you if you ask him. Thank you for making me feel so welcome in your part of the world. It's
nice to know that I have corresponded with the North East's leading authority on cults and
smoking.
Spanner, Channel Isles says...
4:45am Tue 19 Aug 08
Anyone that doesn't believe his wisdom that smoking is a stupid unhealthy habit of no value whatsoever should be criminalised right Smoggie?
Even if ciggy, cigar and pipe smoking cultists outlive good communist citizens that refrain, eat vedgetarian diets and go to bed at 9pm by 20 odd years.
Smoggie and the most unpopular Govt in Britains history knows what's best for us. Gee I should have listened! If you don't hold the Marxist-Lennonist belief system and are 'different' you need banning, your habit made illegal and your life criminalised. Biggotry dressed up as 'democracy' and 'health'.
Robbie the Communist. Everyone is equal but some are more equal than others right? We can all be perfect little Comrades like Robbie. Compliant citizens all behaving just the same. Just as Big Bro Labour wants us to.
Forget democracy, freedom of choice, difference, culture, being an adult and enjoying yourself. Smoggie and Jack Straw will lock you up in jail for daring to live your life as you wish. Robbie waves the banner of Doctor Junk who must also be obeyed on how to live our lives - not that anybody asked them or voted them in!
Doctor Garbage, the Labour Politburo and Robbie the Commie must be obeyed. Zzzzzzzzzzz
Jonathan, Darlington says...
7:06am Tue 19 Aug 08
robbithesmoggie wrote:The Northern Echo is based in Darlington Am I allowed to comment? especially as I have given up smoking for seven years now. Yes give up if you want to and can (if not for health then you save lots of money) but be careful of what drugs you put into your body. You only have the one body look after it.
6 cultists from outside the region against one local smoggy.
Why does the thought of people giving up smoking terrify you so much?
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
9:48am Tue 19 Aug 08
Spaghetti Skin, glad to hear you aren't a cult puppet.
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
10:27am Tue 19 Aug 08
From the latest Foundation for the Study of Infant Death newsletter:
"Make your home a smoke-free zone
The majority of parents are not aware of the extent of the cot death risk posed by smoking in the home.
A poll, conducted for FSID during the first two weeks of the ban on smoking in enclosed public places, found that 70 per cent of parents of young children (aged 0-3) either significantly underestimated or did not know how much more likely cot death was if a baby is exposed to tobacco smoke for one hour every day.
A baby who regularly spends one hour a day in a smoky environment is twice as likely to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) – or cot death – as a baby who lives in a smoke-free home.
Forty-seven per cent of parents polled, however, thought that there was either no risk or a much lower risk than is in fact the case, while 23 per cent couldn’t estimate the risk from the options given.
“We all know about the danger that secondhand smoke poses to the public and yet we expose children to cigarette smoke in the home,” warns FSID-funded cot death researcher Professor Peter Fleming of Bristol University.
“Parents need to be aware of the threat that smoke poses to their children and protect them by enforcing their own smoke-free zones at home.” Helpline adviser Pelola Amusan says: “Even if parents do smoke, they can have a really positive effect on reducing the risk of cot death by making their home a smoke-free zone and always going outside to smoke. And smokers should never share a bed with their baby, even if they don’t smoke in bed.”
Visit www.fsid.org.uk or call our helpline on 020 7233 2090 for more information about what you can do to create a smoke-free zone at home."
soapy, rainworth says...
1:16pm Tue 19 Aug 08
soapy, rainworth says...
2:03pm Tue 19 Aug 08
9:48am Tue 19 Aug 08
Soapy says I'm a Nazi, Spanner says I'm a commie.
I know you're confused! just exactly why did you accuse Spaghetti Skin of being a member of a cult? i thought he made his position very clear in his original post!
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
6:28pm Tue 19 Aug 08
It is you and spanner who are confused
And I didn't accuse Spaghetti Skin of anything, I asked?
soapy, rainworth says...
6:50pm Tue 19 Aug 08
spaghetti skin, lancs says...
6:53pm Tue 19 Aug 08
You asked in a very accusing sort of way and I can see why your opponents would ride you about your facts'. They do seem to be someone else's opinion and rhetoric rather than hard based evidence. (just an observation).
lozolly, Darlington says...
10:24pm Tue 19 Aug 08
soapy, rainworth says...
10:44pm Tue 19 Aug 08
As you say people do react differently to drugs, I wonder would you agree that it would be better if this drug were withdrawn until they find out what causes these reactions?
This particular drug is not really life and death treatment like anti cancer drugs so they could afford to make it safer.
Spanner, Channel Isles says...
11:42pm Tue 19 Aug 08
are you going to grace me with a reply to my posting (8:02pm Mon 18 Aug) ?
Pfizers Champix/Chantix is a dangerous drug banned by the American pilots association and the Truckers Assoc because of its mind-bending dangers together with causing heart seizures and muscle spasms. My questions are;
1). Why are you pushing a dangerous drug?
2). Do you do even a basic check out your stories sources and credibility or do you run any old garbage?
Spanner, Channel Isles says...
11:45pm Tue 19 Aug 08
It's a free country. Soapy can call you what you like - I think his 'Fascist' tag fits as well as me thinking you're a Commie that thinks all of us should be equal and grey and boring as you.
Just for the record you're plastering every article with your boring Cot-Death cult-like obsession. Can you stick to raising issues according to the article?
Spanner, Channel Isles says...
11:51pm Tue 19 Aug 08
What do you think of Northern Echo pushing dangerous suicide-drugs?
What do you think of Northern Echo pushing a drug than on Day 13 of quitting caused one patient 2 heart seizures?
That's more dangerous than decades of smoking 30 a day. Do you think the health dangers of giving up on an NHS quit programme outweigh the lifetime risk of 1% of dying of smoking?
Do you think a 1% lifetime risk like smoking should be ignored while the Dept of Health should address the real dangers to public health of NHS hospitals (1 in 300 chance of giving you an illness or disease)?
Spanner, Channel Isles says...
11:55pm Tue 19 Aug 08
How much did 1 years treatment cost you or was it free on the NHS ?
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
8:28am Wed 20 Aug 08
You have never cited the research that shows you have only a 1% risk of dying from smoking after smoking 30 a day for decades. I suspect the source is as evasive as all of Soapy's myths, but prove me wrong.
In the real world (outside of your cult) most people are able to see that smoking is much more harmful. I think Soapy's lies about smoking near babies being safe is much more dangerous than anything in this article. Or Helen's lies on another thread about smoking actually being good for babies.
soapy, rainworth says...
9:21am Wed 20 Aug 08
it just weakenscase
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
10:13am Wed 20 Aug 08
If people follow YOUR advice that it is safe to smoke around babies there will be more unnecessary cases of SIDS.
Do you really want that to happen?
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
10:20am Wed 20 Aug 08
I have asked you several times to retract your lie ("The Cot Death Foundation has said htat there is no relationship between smoking and SIDS") but you won't.
I will continue to ask you to retract your lie on whatever thread I choose. The lives of North East children are far more important than netiquette. YOU don't care about North East children because YOU live in Rainworth.
soapy, rainworth says...
12:07pm Wed 20 Aug 08
As for a retraction sorry not on this sailors watch! feel free to spend the rest of your life with your obsession for me i' ll stand by my opinion and what science can prove as fact not perverted claims from htose who think they know it all.
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
12:53pm Wed 20 Aug 08
Soapy from Rainworth (113 miles from Darlington, about 2hrs drive http://tinyurl.com/5
eyec8)says the following about his lie:
"As for a retraction sorry not on this sailors watch!"
If you are the parents of a baby and you believe Soapy and act on what he says, you could increase the risk of your baby suffering cot death by between 2 and 8 times that of a baby in a home where nobody smokes, according to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death. This is not a 'perverted claim', these are the words of the foremost organisation in the reduction of cot death.
Spanner, Channel Isles says...
1:58pm Wed 20 Aug 08
I see you're not answering my questions again. Do you call this a discussion when you slide past my replies or is your obsession just a soap-box and a one-way monologue?
This thread is about Pfizers Champix/Chantix which is a mind bending suicide drug that causes muscle and heart spasms and has proven lethal (both accidents, heart seizures and caused 50 suicides) here and in America.
Should the Dept of Health, NHS and Northern Echo be peddling such a lethal and dangerous drug?
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
2:42pm Wed 20 Aug 08
If you don't bother to answer my questions, why would I bother to answer yours?
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
3:34pm Wed 20 Aug 08
I've been surfing and found that
smoking killed 512,000 americans prematurely in 2000, 192,000 of them in middle age.
In the same year smoking killed 106,000 uk residents prematurely, 30,000 of these in middle age.
Do you think you should be pushing smoking as a safe pastime?
soapy, rainworth says...
7:53pm Wed 20 Aug 08
Soapy from Rainworth (113 miles from Darlington, about 2hrs drive http://tinyurl.com/5
eyec8)says the following about his lie:
"As for a retraction sorry not on this sailors watch!"
If you are the parents of a baby and you believe Soapy and act on what he says, you could increase the risk of your baby suffering cot death by between 2 and 8 times that of a baby in a home where nobody smokes, according to the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death. This is not a 'perverted claim', these are the words of the foremost organisation in the reduction of cot death.
wrong Robbie they are the words of a parent support group, they have no scientific accreditation they rely on information presented to them they do not provide said information! now the fact i 113 miles from Darlington puts me 1000,000 miles closer to reality!
now then Champix, what this thread is about why dont you ask the Federal aviation administration and the United States Air force why they banned for pilots? While you're about it ask the Federal Drug Administration why they are investigating the safety of this drug? you may just learn something!
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
8:06pm Wed 20 Aug 08
They were good enough for you when you lied and said " The Cot Death Foundation has said htat there is no relationship between smoking and SIDS"
soapy, rainworth says...
10:06pm Wed 20 Aug 08
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
10:18pm Wed 20 Aug 08
You are worried about the effect of Champix which you say kills people
I am worried about the effect of your lies, which could lead to the death of babies if people believe you.
Net conventions are less important
soapy, rainworth says...
10:56pm Wed 20 Aug 08
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
11:10pm Wed 20 Aug 08
You seem more interested in thread purity that the truth about babies health
soapy, rainworth says...
1:45am Thu 21 Aug 08
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
9:04am Thu 21 Aug 08
YOU ducked out of the "Long-term risks to children if parents smoke" 3 weeks ago after telling your bare faced lie.
Children's health is more important than thread purity - you don't agree because you want to give advice that would lead to more north east babies suffering cot death.
soapy, rainworth says...
10:57am Thu 21 Aug 08
Would you not say your attitude is a disgrace to every Northeasterner who reads this, can you find a single reasonable person in the Northeast who will support you?
No you won't of course for in your puritanical warped mind nothing exists but the Northeast, this is not for the children Robbie, this is to feed your bigotry, to fuel the hatred between smoker and non-smoker, North and South, Well Robbie Smokers are here to stay, the other regions are here to stay, live with it now can I offer you some CHANTIX?
TimeBandit, says...
12:06pm Thu 21 Aug 08
The pro smoking lobby complain about traffic fumes yet only today, upon returning to town from a motorcycle ride in the countryside I waited at a roundabout for a car to pass, inside, with the passenger window down was a woman passenger holding a ciggarette, I pulled onto the roundabout and followed the car and immediatly my nostrels were asailed by the foul smog from her ciggarette, I was suprised by this (I don't have a particularly great sense of smell)but that stench overpowered everything else,and this persisted along the road until she just threw her fag out of the window still lit!.
To those who wish to smoke, fine,it's your choice get on with it in places where you're allowed to, stop whinging about nanny states and let the rest of us (the majority) breathe cleaner air. But Robbie, do'nt you think that your user name, "thesmoggie" might be a bit inappropriate for someone commenting against smoking?.
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
1:18pm Thu 21 Aug 08
robbithesmoggie, Yarm says...
12:48pm Mon 18 Aug 08
Their website masters mustn't have picked this story up yet, otherwise they would have descended from all over the country to tell us folk in the north east what to think.