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A TASMANIAN man who went missing for more than a week has warned of the psychological dangers of the anti-smoking drug Champix.

 Matthew Prescott, 52, said the drug totally changed his personality and resulted in him going missing from his Devonport home last month, nine days after starting the prescription medication. 

Mr Prescott says the drug left him in a fog of depression and confusion and for most of the 10 days he was away he had no idea where he was or what he was doing. 

However, the Australian Medical Association’s Tasmanian branch says Champix has a relatively low risk of side-effects and achieved up to 40 per cent success in helping smokers to quit. 

Between January and October this year, 8030 Tasmanians were prescribed Champix. During the same period 266,512 Australians used the drug. 

Mr Prescott, who only returned home after a Devonport publican rang his 

distraught wife Colleen Vandenberg-Prescott, said his experience with Champix had been a nightmare. 

“I have no idea what I was thinking when I disappeared,” he said. 

 ”While you are on Champix, you don’t know you are experiencing side-effects” 

“My head was just telling me to go, so I bolted.” 

Mr Prescott remembers being in Ulverstone, Hobart and Swansea but says most of the week is a blur.
 
“I remember doing things like paying for a hotel room and then 20 minutes later walking away from it and going somewhere else. 

“The really weird thing is that while you are on Champix, you don’t know you are experiencing side-effects, you think you are behaving perfectly normally.” 

Mrs Vandenberg-Prescott said she noticed many symptoms in her husband before his 

“totally out-of-character” disappearance. 

“He was tired all the time, he was dry retching, his alcohol consumption increased, he was paranoid, vague and quick-tempered,” she said. 

“He was not himself at all but he thought I was unfairly criticising him if I said anything.” 

Mr Prescott, who suffers depression, said he was not warned of any side-effects by his prescribing GP and there was no information sheet in the Champix packet. 

“I’m not blaming anyone for that though, and maybe Champix is OK for some people. 

“But for me, it was a terrible drug and I think people need to be aware of the possible side-effects,” he said. 

Mrs Vandenberg-Prescott said she was starting to believe the drug was evil. 

“Websites in Australia, Britain and America are full of stories of relationship and psychological breakdowns, and since Matt’s disappearance at least 10 people have shared their horror stories with me including one person who seriously contemplated suicide.” 

AMA Tasmanian branch spokesman Andrew Jackson disagreed, saying the bad effects of smoking were so serious a medicine like Champix should be available to anyone who wanted to stop. 

“Any prescription drug potentially has side-effects and doctors and patients have to consider the benefit/risk ratio,” Dr Jackson said. 

He said Champix’s success rate in helping people quit smoking was up to 40 per cent compared with 10 per cent going “cold turkey”. 

“Doctors should be careful when prescribing Champix to certain classes of patients, including people with a history of depression or mental and psychiatric disorders but the effects of smoking are so serious it still ought to be prescribed,” he said. 

QUIT Tasmania executive director Michael Wilson said although the organisation did not promote Champix, it appeared to work well as a smoking cessation aid. 

“Since Champix went on the market more than two years ago QUIT Tasmania has been deluged by calls from people using the drug and they are telling us it is working,” Mr Wilson said. 

“We have certainly not seen any data to suggest Champix is causing medical problems.”