Study: Stop-smoking drugs Chantix, Zyban pose no heart risks

CHICAGO (AP) — New research shows the stop-smoking drugs Chantix and Zyban are as safe for the heart as nicotine patches and dummy pills.

The results are from industry-funded research requested by U.S. and European regulators. They’re part of a big study that earlier found no increased risks for severe psychiatric problems.

Experts say the results show it’s safer for smokers to use these drugs than to continue smoking.

The study was published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. It included over 2,000 adult smokers from the United States and 15 other countries.

Smokers used one of the three treatments or dummy pills for three months followed by an observation period lasting up to a year. There were few heart attacks and deaths but they occurred with similar frequency in all four groups.