I have had someone writing to complain about my blog stating that Philip Dawdy needed to smoke for his mental condition and that he shouldn’t be kicked out of his appartment for smoking. I mean he is smoking in the privacy of his own home. Why should those Seattle Eco fascists be able to kick him out of his own home?

Anyhoo I have had official letters of complaint to the Dean of my university and the acting chair of my department and they have asked me to remove the name of my university and letterhead from my blog with which I have complied. So if you want to know my university you can use google.

The news about the stop smoking drug Chantix (varenicline) just keeps getting worse. When my sister emailed a while back and said she was thinking of taking the drug to get off the weed, I said make sure you have your suicide hotline number handy. A recent report in JAMA shows an alarming number of suicides and suicide attempts on Chantix, much larger than you would normally expect.

Last year I was sitting in my car dealership waiting to get service on my car and working on my laptop while the television was droning on in front of me. I mean this was one of the rare times when I watch TV without the benefit of Tivo to pause the commercials or otherwise avoid them. And it was like one prescription medication ad after another! They were only punctuated by an ad for a device for diabetics to check their blood sugar at home. All I can say is they better get Ronald McDonald (”Don’t forget to feed the waste baskets…”) back on TV so that they can keep those diabetics rolling in to buy their blood glucose testers (not to mention their Avandia and Actos).

Anyhoo one of the ads that caught my eye was of a woman who droned on about how she needed a cigarette to wake up, one in the car, one at 10 am… Boy I know that drill. I kicked the habit by writing a book that advocated diet, exercise and lifestyle changes over prescription medications for health (works every time! No relapses!).

But enough of my narcissism, back to the “My Time to Quit” campaign by the makers of the anti-smoking drug Chantix, which was gleefully playing across the screen at my auto dealership and interfering with my ability to concentrate on more important things like write a book chapter that noone would ever read.

This drug affects the frontal lobe of the brain, which regulates emotion, and has been associated with depression, psychosis, and suicidality. It made headlines when a famous country music singer from Texas who was on the drug accosted a neighbor in an apparently psychotic state of mind and was shot dead.

Thanks Texas home invasion gun laws!

What’s really annoying is that the clinical trials of Chantix excluded people with mental disorders, but smoking is increased in this population, and these people are obviously at increased risk of suicidality. In spite of this the spokespersons for Chantix say it is fine for people with depression and other mental disorders to go ahead and take Chantix.

When I think of Chantix, in spite of the PR campaign to the contrairy, rather than thinking,

Time To Quit!

The image that comes to mind is of (Governor) Arnold Schwartenagger about to finally eliminate a robot in one of the terminator movies when he says…

Time to die!

I have the best method to quit smoking. DIE!

Oh well, maybe I’ll start humming along with the “life saving drugs” theme song one of these days.

Hat tip to Philip Dawdy.

I was concerned to learn that Philip Dawdy who writes on the Furious Seasons blog was about to get kicked out of his appartment in Seattle. I grew up in Olympia WA and interviewed for a position in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Washington in 2000 where I noticed that outside the University Hospital there was a sign that not only could you not smoke in the hospital, you couldn’t smoke outside of the hospital, and in fact you had to move 200 yards AWAY from the hospital to smoke. I mean my wife is Italian born Italian and I am used to going to bars, restaurants, parties, etc, where everyone smokes. I think that this recent Seattle phenomenon is a sign of Eco-Fascism and as a psychiatrist I have to try and interpret what the root pathology might be. Hmmm… could it be an arrest at the oral stage of development ala Freud?

Anyhoo, rumours state that my sister Anne Bremner, local Seattle lawyer and noted legal analysis commentator on CNN and FOX as well as lawyer for Amanda Knox in the Perugia Italy case, also a smoker, is getting similar harassments from Seattle Eco-Fascists, even though she owns her own property! We are going to have to get the half-cousins from Eastern Washington to come over there with their guns!

Rumours are that Anne might take on Philip’s case pro bonno! Do the Eco-fascists have a good legal basis for their actions? Only time will tell!

I felt so UPSET about this situation that I had to write a letter as a psychiatrist and physician scientist outlining my concerns, and here it is.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing in regard to Philip Dawdy, a resident of your apartment complex. Mr. Dawdy has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental condition. Mr. Dawdy is currently addicted to nicotine in the form of smoking cigarettes. In my medical opinion, stopping the smoking of cigarettes may disrupt his mental condition in an unacceptable way, and it is therefore medically contraindicated for him to stop smoking cigarettes. Forcing him to either stop smoking cigarettes or to move out of his apartment is not in his best medical interest.

Sincerely

J. Douglas Bremner, M.D.

Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology

Atlanta, Georgia

Take this letter and use as you will, Philip.

Good Luck.

Dr. B.
[Note: the name of my university and the letter with my university's letterhead have been redacted at the request of the Dean of my university following a complaint from an outside source. It was pointed out to me by the Dean that use of my university's name and letterhead for personal use (which this was judged to be) was a violation of university policies. Also people have taken this post to indicate that I am an advocate for smoking. I do not advocate smoking as it can cause heart disease and lung cancer. This blog is for entertainment purposes and is to be taken as medical advice. ]