ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2015
Varenicline and risk of psychiatric conditions, suicidal behaviour, criminal offending, and transport accidents and offences: population based cohort study.
Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Nicotine receptor partial agonists for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Oral glucocorticoids and risk of psychiatric and suicidal behaviour outcomes: population-based cohort study.The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science · 2026Article
- First Episode of Psychosis in the Context of Varenicline Treatment for Smoking Cessation.Cureus · 2023Article
- Interaction of Varenicline with Classic Antiseizure Medications in the Mouse Maximal Electroshock-Induced Seizure Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Signals of Muscle Relaxant Drug Interactions Associated with Unintentional Traumatic Injury: A Population-Based Screening Study.CNS drugs · 2022Article
- Risk of neuropsychiatric adverse events associated with varenicline treatment for smoking cessation among Dutch population: A sequence symmetry analysis.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2022Article
- Risk of neuropsychiatric and cardiovascular adverse events following treatment with varenicline and nicotine replacement therapy in the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink: a case-cross-over study.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Article
- Article
- Pharmacological Approach to Smoking Cessation: An Updated Review for Daily Clinical Practice.High blood pressure & cardiovascular prevention : the official journal of the Italian Society of Hypertension · 2020Review
- Prescribing Prevalence, Effectiveness, and Mental Health Safety of Smoking Cessation Medicines in Patients With Mental Disorders.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2020Article
- The relation between the age at diagnosis of problem behaviors related to aggression and distal outcomes in Swedish children.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2019Article
- Associations between gabapentinoids and suicidal behaviour, unintentional overdoses, injuries, road traffic incidents, and violent crime: population based cohort study in Sweden.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2019Article
- Editorial: Synthesizing the Evidence on Prisoner Health-Taking Stock and Moving Forward.American journal of epidemiology · 2018Article
- Parental nicotine replacement therapy and offspring bronchitis/bronchiolitis and asthma - a nationwide population-based cohort study.Clinical epidemiology · 2018Article
- Animal models to improve our understanding and treatment of suicidal behavior.Translational psychiatry · 2017Review
- Quitting smoking before and after varenicline: a population study based on two representative samples of US smokers.Tobacco control · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo examine associations between varenicline and the incidence of a range of adverse outcomes.
designPopulation based cohort study using within person analyses to control for confounding by indication.
settingWhole population of Sweden.
participants7,917,436 people aged 15 and over, of whom 69,757 were treated with varenicline between 2006 and 2009.
main outcome measuresIncidence of new psychiatric conditions, suicidal behaviour, suspected and convicted criminal offending, transport accidents, and suspected and convicted traffic offences.
resultsIn the whole population, 337,393 new psychiatric conditions were diagnosed during follow-up. In addition, 507,823 suspected and 338,608 convicted crimes, 40,595 suicidal events, 124,445 transport accidents, and 99,895 suspected and 57,068 convicted traffic crimes were recorded. Within person analyses showed that varenicline was not associated with significant hazards of suicidal behaviour, criminal offending, transport accidents, traffic offences, or psychoses. However, varenicline was associated with a small increase in the risk of anxiety conditions (hazard ratio 1.23, 95% confidence interval 1.01 to 1.51) and mood conditions (1.31, 1.06 to 1.63), which was only seen in people with pre-existing psychiatric disorders.
conclusionsConcerns that varenicline is associated with an increased risk of many adverse outcomes, including suicidality and accidents, are not supported in this observational study. The small increase in risk of two psychiatric conditions in people with pre-existing psychiatric disorders needs to be confirmed using other research designs.
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