FDA Warnings and Mental Health Stigma

The New York Times had an article yesterday about the FDA requiring black box warnings on Chantix and Zyban, anti-smoking drugs from Pfizer and GlaxsoSmithKline respectively.

From the article:

Federal drug regulators warned Wednesday that patients taking two popular stop-smoking drugs should be watched closely for signs of serious mental illness, as reported suicides among the drugs’ users mount.

There is certainly an argument to be made that DTC drug advertising can help reduce stigma around certain conditions, including mental health issues. I think there are a variety of reasons this might happen, if for no other reason than running ads for drugs to treat depression on major television networks has to communicate that a lot of people might be interested in those drugs.

Reading the NYT article, I’m left wondering how black box warnings for drugs like Chantix and Zyban work in the opposite direction. As the media covers this issue (which they should), people are going to be reading about side effects (serious mental illness) that have resulted in these stronger warnings. Does that contribute to the stigmatization of mental illness? I don’t know, but it seems like an interesting question worth a bit more study...