Risk of depression dims hopes for anti-addiction pills

Risk of depression dims hopes for anti-addiction pills

news.yahoo.com

Two years ago, scientists had high hopes for new pills that would help people quit smoking, lose weight and maybe kick other tough addictions like alcohol and coc aine

The pills worked in a novel way, by blocking pleasure centers in the brain that provide the feel-good response from smoking or eating. Now it seems the drugs may block pleasure too well, possibly raising the risk of depression and suicide.

Margaret Bastian of suburban Rochester, N.Y., was among patients who reported problems with Chantix, a highly touted quit-smoking pill from Pfizer Inc. that has been linked to dozens of reports of suicides and hundreds of suicidal behaviors.

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Well, I never heard of it and thankfully it wont be going n the market too soon, but it does make you wonder why so many people do tend to get depressed.

Has the testing of this drug been done in secret?
Is this the reason why so many people are on anti-depressants now? To gently ween them off the addictive side of the anti-addiction drug?

A bigger fear is that the whole approach may be in trouble. Researchers say blocking pleasure, especially the way the obesity drugs do, might take the fun out of many things, not just the harmful substances and behaviors these drugs target.

It sure has taken the fun of laughing at such things as this. I don't even feel like laughing at Pfizer for getting their hopes up.

Good news is, this is one drug (temporarily) out of reach. (unless it's prescribed via some dodgy back door deals and you don't know about it)

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Actually there is a drug (BUPROPION HYDROCHLORIDE) used to help quit smoking and few other addictions. It is certainly not a miracle worker, and has a bunch of side effects.
I do not see someone developing efficient and safe anti-addiction drug because addiction mechanism is just overreacting (overused) natural positive backup (reward) system. And successfully messing with fine-tunning of our nervous system is very complicated.