pickchau

Yes. Lady B. Please read some of my former posts. My husband has been having psychotic episodes for 4 months now. Thankfully, they are getting less violent and severe and I dont fear for his and my safety any more. Today the Sun newspaper has again highlighted the indiscriminate prescribing of Champix and clearly states "Experts say it appears most risky for people with underlying mental health problems" and there is a huge article on page 23 about the Dad who killed his wife and children when taking the drug and drinking alcohol.... which is exactly what my husband did. My hubby also has mental health problems and has been on/off anti depressants for 5 years. He was actually taking anti depressants when the practice nurse prescribed his Champix FFS! Please be aware of any changes in your feelings, behaviour and thinking. Good luck

By the way.... it is 4 weeks today since my husband had his last psychotic episode. There have been some instances when his speech has been a little unclear, but none of the verbal abuse, threats and irrational/bizarre behaviours that we have seen many times over the last 3 months. His short term memory is good and we have everything crossed that we are over the worst.

No, Lyn, it was the Practice Nurse at our surgery. She also prescribed the steroids and antibiotics previously. She knew my husband had depression, she also knew I had had a stroke 2 years previously. I reminded her of this when we were discussing how to stop smoking, but she said we would be fine. She even insisted we begin taking Champix the day before our holiday (which I ignored and we started the packs of tablets when we got home). We both read through the leaflet that came with Champix before we began taking the tablets. We were concerned about the possible side effects, but believed the Practice nurse's recommendation..... "our life in their hands!" Over the last 3 months my husband was admitted to hospital twice, and we have seen our own GP several times and a locum GP. No-one told us to stop taking Champix, nor did they make any connection between his psychotic episodes and the drug. In fact, our local hospital (Rotherham District General) had never heard of Champix and suggested my husband had probably had a TIA (mini stroke). It was only through reading scare stories on the internet that we decided not to take them. I cannot emphasise how difficult it has been for us to live with this. It is scary and unprdictable. Our grown up children have been wonderful, but they are so worried. I have struggled to keep working and our GP offers no support at all. My biggest worry is how long this is going to last. We are both in our 50's so plently of living and enjoying life left in us.

I just want to warn Champix users of our recent experiences. My husband and I stopped smoking with Champix, back in November 2010. Unfortunately, our stop smoking specialist did not take into account that my hubby had depression and was taking 50mg Sertraline each day. He had also had a recent one week course of steroids for a chest infection (damn the fags!) and a course of antibiotics. On 6 December he had his first psychotic episode. It was devastating to see my quiet and loving husband turn into an argumentative tyrant, refusing to reason and physically threatening me when I took him to hospital. He had more episodes during December and I began to research Champix, among friends and on the internet. I quickly realised that people with a known history of depression should not take the drug. We both stopped taking Champix after I realised that my husband was having more episodes and his behaviour was getting more bizarre. He began to lose huge amounts of short term memory and our GP refused to let him drive. I cried for him on Christmas Day. He was so sad and his speech was slurred and incoherent. On Boxing Day he refused to believe he had experienced such feelings, so I filmed one of his episodes. He was distraught when he saw how angry, irrational and unpleasant he was. He cried when he became aware of the stress this placed on me. Further psychotic episodes occured in January and our GP referred my hubby to a Neurologist. By February I became increasingly fraught with the snailpace of the NHS, so I demanded a mental health assessment be made. Hubby has finally been allocated an appointment with a psychiatrist. His symptoms have now subsided and it has been over 3 weeks since his last episode. Yes, we are both smoking. It would have been impossible to endure the last 3 months battling with this confusing illness without going cold turkey. I have no idea what the immediate future will bring, but, I would never recommend Champix.... particularly if there is any history (past or present) of depression

Does anyone remember Don and Marion (Maz) Millward? They ran the Albert in the late 60's and moved to manage the Nelson in 70/71, increasing the turnover dramatically with a 'hippy' makeover. They had murals on the walls, oil wheels and a brilliant 'loud as hell' juke box. I remember the power cuts when Don and Maz took over the Nelson. We drank Newkie Brown and played darts by candlelight. I was one of their barmaids, and I moved with them to Grimsby ('73) when they managed the Exchange there. Im still in touch with the 'formidable' Maz. Don RIP about 5 years ago. While Im here, I also remember John and Ann Wooley, who had the Minerva. Last I saw of them they had a sarni van outside the University around 1991.

In 1970 my favourite haunt was the Penthouse. I worked as a barmaid in the Albert (later on in the Nelson) and, after time, the manager, Don Millward and his wife Marion would take the staff to the Penthouse. Those stairs were a killer after a lunch and evening shift, but were even worse coming back down after drinking far too much vino collapso. We used to wander up to the Wimpy Bar after they threw us out of the Penthouse. I once remember some bloke taking the p*ss out of Shirley.... he wasnt that much of a lady when he pasted the crap out of the bloke. One of us usually ended up getting thrown into Barkers Pool... if I remember right, it was usually me! Happy days :-)

The Albert had a much better juke box, and the customers were all characters. I remember so many of the regulars... Silence, Spook, Petal, Sam, Big Dave from Barnsley, Basher... I was the barmaid there in 1970 and I went on to be the barmaid at the Nelson a couple of years later when Don and Marion (Albert managers) moved down the road to manage the Nelson. Mick (surname escapes me) did the murals and I used to work in the 'dive bar' with Andy. Marion is still a close friend. Unfortunately, Don died 5 years ago after a very long illness. For those regulars, I was the one they used to throw in Barkers pool after hours.... such memories!