Suffering from the cure?

In Canada, The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine has published the results of research indicating that users of Varenicline, a commonly prescribed drug for smoking cessation, were 34 percent more likely than non-users to require an emergency department visit or hospitalization for a cardiovascular event while taking the drug.

The authors said that the study was observational and could not determine cause and effect.

According to a EurekAlert! story relayed by the TMA, the study analyzed the medical records of 56,851 new users of Varenicline between September 2011 and February 2015 living in Ontario.

“Previous studies regarding the safety of Varenicline have been conflicting and most examined people with relatively similar characteristics and backgrounds in highly controlled settings,” said lead study author Andrea S. Gershon, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and a scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, Canada.