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General comments about the use of Zyban

In some ways I am pretty neutral with the use of Zyban. Zyban is not a nicotine replacement so does not perpetuate the withdrawal state. Because there is no nicotine involved I don’t feel it undercuts a person chance of quitting like nicotine replacement products can. I have had people in my clinics that have quit while using Zyban. In all honesty though, I didn’t see them do any better or worse success wise than the others in their groups.

While during the initial quitting period while in the clinic you couldn’t really see any differences in the people taking Zyban when compared to those who were not using it. Where differences would sometimes become more noticeable though was a few weeks after the clinic was over. Then I would see that clinic participants who were still on Zyban were having side effects not happening to the other clinic graduates who quit at the same time as them. The most notable complaint was sleep problems that went much longer than one would normally expect for those who do not use Zyban.

Because of the extended side effects I personally question whether it is really worth the longer-term side effects and expense if it isn’t making a real difference in success? On the other hand, would some of these people not have even started their quits without the feeling that it was really going to make the difference?

I do think more people take it than really need to but if a person does not experience unwanted side effects and his or her doctor thinks that he or she should take it and the person does actually quit, well then he or she is off smoking and that is what is important. Again, I suspect that the person could have done it without the medication, but since the person is off that belief is a moot point.

I am troubled when I see people report on the board that they can’t quit smoking because they can’t tolerate the medication. They are feeling handicapped before they start to quit and they are giving the drug too much credit. Again, you can quit with it if it is tolerable and you and your doctor feels it is safe for you to use. You can quit without it too if you really want to stop and are willing to put in the effort it takes to quit. That is the truth in both cases though, with Zyban or without. Your quit will succeed either way if you always understand the importance of knowing to Never Take Another Puff!

Joel


I wanted to add a comment here. You will notice that the title I gave this string was “General Comments about the Use of Zyban.” I purposely did not make the title “General comments about Wellbutrin” or “General Comments about Bupropion.”

I think people need to be aware that Zyban is a medication that a doctor can write for a patient wanting to quit smoking. Generally, if the prescription is written as “Zyban,” most health insurances won’t pick up the cost.

Wellbutrin is a medication that a doctor can write a prescription for that many if not most insurance companies will pick up. I just think people need to be aware that the reason that insurance will cover the cost of a Wellbutrin prescription is that by writing the prescription as “Wellbutrin,” the physician has in the view of the insurance company made a diagnosis of depression in the patient’s medical record.

I have had a few clinic participants report that this procedure has gone on to cause problems for them. Months or years after quitting smoking, when some people went on to get life insurance or health insurance, they were not given preferred rates because they had recent bouts with depression. This came as a surprise to these people for as far as they could recall, they had never been particularly depressed and as far as they were concerned, they were never treated for depression. Their medical records indicated otherwise though because they were given Wellbutrin by their physician.

I had one clinic participant who never even filled the prescription and yet who was impacted by the fact that her medical record had indicated that Wellbutrin was prescribed for her. My comments in the original string here about Zyban is really only about Zyban. We wouldn’t comment on Wellbutrin for we have always had a strictly reinforced policy in place at Freedom about giving and getting medical advice–and any discussion about a prescription drug to treat a medical condition is not allowed at Freedom. All questions involving prescription medications should be taken up with your personal physician.

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© Joel Spitzer 2021
Reformatted 03/24/21 by John R. Polito