Over 33,000 veterans who are taking the anti-smoking drug Chantix, an FDA approved drug, are being sent letters warning them about possible side effects including suicidal thoughts. The Veterans Affairs Department letter urges anyone experiencing side effects to consult doctor. 

The post traumatic stress disorder and smoking cessation study was basically to determine whether it is easier to stop smoking when PTSD therapy and smoking cessation treatments are combined or are more effective handled separately.

In a conference call on Thursday, VA Secretary James Peake told reporters that agency doctors would continue to prescribe the drug as they are seeing no serious problem with its use. "This is a very important drug for our clinicians to be able to use when appropriate for patients," Peake said.

He further added that if VA officials felt using the drug was hurting veterans, they would stop immediately. Defending the use of the drug he said that only 2% of the veterans who took the drug had suicidal thought, as compared to 4.4 % who did not take the drug.
VA spokesman Matt Smith in a statement e-mailed to The Washington Times said "based on current data 26 Serious Adverse Events (SAE) occurred in patients while on Chantix," 10 of these he added "were of a psychiatric nature and two cases of suicidal thoughts.

Previously the agency had listed 21 adverse effects with only one of them being serious or a case of suicidal thoughts. The drug in the study has now been linked to psychotic and suicidal behavior; details have been reported in an exclusive Washington Times / ABC News investigation this week.