Anti-smoking drug can cause seizures: report
11/26/02
A new study has found accidental poisoning from the anti-smoking drug Zyban resulted in seizures and high blood pressure, with some patients requiring hospitalisation.
Figures released at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress in Melbourne today found almost 70 patients overdosed on the drug in the first six months since it was introduced.
Of those, 10 were children who had accidentally ingested the tablets.
Researcher Corrine Balit from the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre at the Children's Hospital at Westmead, says more than a third of patients who took an excess of the drug suffered seizures and had to be hospitalised.
Those patients reporting the serious side effects had taken up to 30 tablets, well over the recommended dose.
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