The Stop-Smoking Drug That Could Make You Crazy

Things were looking good. My doctor had gone through the test results and told me I was perfectly healthy--except my breathing was a little shallow. That didn't surprise me. I'd been smoking for twelve of my 32 years, and my father died of lung cancer in his early fifties. That's why I was having my first physical in five years: I'd decided it was time to stop for good.

I'd heard about Chantix, a relatively new drug from Pfizer that blocks nicotine from attaching to your brain receptors. That way, you stop receiving any pleasure from cigarettes at all--even as the drug, snuggling up to those receptors the same way nicotine does, reduces withdrawal cravings and unleashes a happy little wash of dopamine to boot. Wonderful things they can do nowadays.

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