Pour ceux qui aurait la mauvaise idée de prendre du Champix

Sky Sports executive slashed wrists after taking controversial stop-smoking drug


A Television executive killed himself just weeks after starting to take a controversial smoking cessation drug linked to depression.

Omer Jama, 39, a Sky Sports editor who had no history of mental illness, was found dead at his home just two months after he began a course of drugs to help him quit his 20-a-day habit.

Mr Jama, a video editor with Sky Sports, had slashed both his wrists and stabbed himself in the thigh and stomach.

Omer Jama was found dead at his home two months after he was prescribed Champix

An inquest heard the 39-year-old had been prescribed Champix just two months before his death last October.

He began the £164 private prescription 12-week course taking one tablet a day for 14 days then two a day for another fortnight. But just days after being pictured smiling and holding his newborn niece he killed himself at his own home.

The Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, which has been monitoring side effects reported by Champix patients, said there had been four reports of suicide and five of attempted suicide since its was licensed in the UK in September 2006.


Champix has been linked to depression and suicide
Julie Evans, a forensic toxicologist, told the inquest into his death: "There is a possibility he could have been influenced by the side effects of the drug."

Fears are growing over the safety of the so-called "wonder drug" which has been used by more than 200,000 people in the UK.

Now the family of Mr Jama from Bolton called for more investigations into its safety of the drug after a coroner returned an open verdict into his death.

His brother, Ali Jama, 41, said: "It is clear from the evidence of the toxicologist that Champix's influence could have played a part.

"I would like to see more investigation done."

Catherine Jama, his wife of 12 years, told the inquest the couple had recently separated on a trial basis but they met regularly and he was his "usual self" and friends said he was happy in the days before his death.

He had booked a holiday to Cuba with a friend just days previously to celebrate is 40th birthday and the keen amateur golfer was still on a high after winning a trophy.

"They just weren't the actions of a man who was contemplating suicide," said Mr Jama, aged 41, of London.

"He's got no history of depression and was never the sort of person you would see feeling sorry for himself."

Coroner Jennifer Leeming said she would be writing to the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use which has been monitoring the drug since it was first authorised in September 2006.

Last year the body received 839 reports of adverse reactions and figures showed 46 were linked to depression and 16 patients claimed to have suffered suicidal thoughts.

She said she would register Mr Jama's death as an "adverse event" but was satisfied he inflicted the injuries on himself.

She said: "For me to register he took his own life I would have to be satisfied he did the act which led to his death and he knew what he was doing.

"On the evidence before me I cannot say that was the case."

The European Medicines Agency, the drug's licensers, issued guidance on Champix's active ingredient varenicline to doctors two months after Mr Jama's death that "updated warnings" were needed to increase awareness of cases of suicidal thoughts.

Champix is the first non-nicotine anti-smoking treatment and works on brain receptors to relieve cravings and nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Manufacturer Pfizer has insisted a direct link between Champix and psychiatric problems has not been officially established and that nicotine withdrawal can lead to mood swings and behavioural changes.

A spokesman for Pfizer said: "Depression, rarely including suicidal ideation, has been reported in patients undergoing a smoking cessation attempt.

"These symptoms have also been reported while quitting with varenicline. "A relationship between varenicline and the reported symptoms hasn't been established, but in some reports a link couldn't be excluded."

Anti-smoking drug, Zyban, which is made by GlaxoSmithKline, has also been linked to a number of suicides among patients.

Effets secondaires gravissimes, invention de maladies imaginaires, laxisme d'autorités sanitaires bienveillantes: dans un livre choc, le Dr Sauveur Boukris accuse.

"Les médecins administrent des médicaments dont ils savent très peu, à des malades dont ils savent moins, pour guérir des maladies dont ils ne savent rien", écrivait Voltaire... Près de trois siècles plus tard, un médecin, Sauveur Boukris, confirme la sentence et aggrave la peine dans un livre édifiant, dont nous publions des extraits en exclusivité: Ces médicaments qui nous rendent malades (Le Cherche Midi). Où l'on découvre, stupéfait, les effets secondaires gravissimes de médicaments consommés couramment; l'ignorance crasse de médecins formés, le plus souvent, à la seule école de l'industrie pharmaceutique; l'invention de maladies imaginaires pour l'unique profit d'entreprises florissantes; la partialité des experts; le laxisme d'autorités sanitaires bienveillantes; la force d'un lobby mieux organisé que jamais... Entre autres bonnes nouvelles!
"Cette industrie a changé de politique, écrit en préface de l'ouvrage le Pr Philippe Even, président de l'Institut Necker et farouche défenseur de l'indépendance de ses pairs (lire son interview). On a privilégié les profits immédiats, le retour sur investissement rapide; on a cherché davantage à satisfaire des actionnaires qu'à répondre aux besoins de santé des populations." Le récit circonstancié de son confrère généraliste, truffé d'anecdotes vécues et de références chiffrées, apporte de l'eau fraîche -des torrents, même- au moulin des trop rares Don Quichotte de la médecine moderne. Le réquisitoire mériterait aussi d'être largement entendu: gageons qu'il suscite un branle-bas de combat général. Car les Français sont particulièrement exposés à ces dérives, qui consomment chaque année de deux à six fois plus de gélules et comprimés en tout genre, ronds, carrés, oblongs ou taillés en losange, que leurs voisins européens et leurs cousins d'Amérique. Un penchant hasardeux, dont les conséquences sont loin d'être sans dommage.

Quand Le sevrage nuit à la santé

«En 2001, un médicament est mis sur le marché: le bupropion (Zyban). C'est une substance proche d'un psychostimulant amphétaminique. La dénomination commune internationale est l'amfébutamone, et cette molécule était autrefois commercialisée comme anorexigène coupe-faim amphétaminique sous le nom de Tenuate Dospan, de Moderatan, de Prefamone Chronules, médicaments retirés du marché en 1999 en raison du risque d'hypertension artérielle pulmonaire et de risques cardiaques. Aux Etats-Unis, l'amfébutamone est commercialisée depuis 1997 pour le sevrage tabagique. En France, son autorisation de mise sur le marché n'a été accordée qu'en 2001 sous réserve d'une surveillance destinée à poursuivre l'évaluation du potentiel de pharmacovigilance. Ce médicament a une efficacité modeste, mais son succès dépend de la posologie : plus on augmente la dose du bupropion, plus le taux de réussite de sevrage tabagique s'accroît. En revanche, les effets secondaires ne sont pas mineurs : sur 1 237 cas d'effets secondaires rapportés au centre de pharmacovigilance d'Australie, on compte 427 cas de troubles psychiques (anxiété, dépression, agitation) et 406 cas de troubles neurologiques (tremblements, convulsions, céphalées). On a décrit des risques accrus de cauchemars. En dehors de ces risques psychiques, il existe aussi des réactions allergiques graves qui surviennent dix à vingt jours après le début du traitement : réaction d'urticaire, d'oedème, de démangeaisons. Enfin, des cas d'hypertension artérielle ont été rapportés.»

Tabac : le Champix, médicament contesté et bientôt déremboursé

Les aides au sevrage tabagique, qu'elles soient médicamenteuses, substitutives ou psychologiques, ne sont pas toujours efficaces, loin de là. En ce qui concerne la varénicline, le principe actif du Champix ®, son utilité avait été reconnue par les autorités, d'où son remboursement. Cependant des doutes sur sa tolérance, en particulier psychiatrique, avaient conduit l'Afssaps à placer ce médicament sous surveillance. Le 31 mai, journée mondiale sans tabac, le ministre de la santé Xavier Bertrand a franchi un pas supplémentaire et annonce son déremboursement.