Stop smoking pill link to Bolton man's suicide

2:27pm Thursday 17th April 2008

A TV executive from Bolton who died after slitting his wrists could have been influenced by the side effects of a powerful stop smoking pill, an inquest heard.

Omer Jama, aged 39, a senior Sky Sports editor, was found dead at his home last October, two months after he was prescribed cessation drug, Champix.

He had slashed his wrists and stabbed himself in the thigh and stomach.

Bolton coroner, Jennifer Leeming, said she was satisfied he had inflicted the injuries on himself, but could not record a suicide verdict as it was unclear if he was of sound mind.

She has now vowed to write to the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use to register the death as an "adverse event".

Mrs Leeming said: "For me to register he took his own life I would have to be satisfied he did the act which led to his death and he knew what he was doing.

"On the evidence before me I cannot say that was the case."

Catherine Jama, Mr Jama's wife of 12 years, told the inquest the couple had recently separated on a trial basis but they met regularly and he was his 'usual self'.

Friends said he was 'jolly' in the days before his death.

Mr Jama, of Redcar Road, Smithills, was first prescribed Champix in August and again in October. He took one tablet a day for 14 days then two a day for another fortnight.

A 12-week course of the drug, licensed in the EU in September, 2006 costs £164 and about 200,000 smokers have taken it.

Julie Evans, an expert in forensic toxicology, said traces of the drug in Mr Jama's blood did not indicate an overdose. But she said reports from America and other countries revealed suicidal ideations' in patients. She said: "There is a possibility he could have been influenced by the side effects of the drug."

The inquest heard the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has been monitoring the drug since it was first authorised Last year the body received 839 reports of adverse reactions. Its figures showed 46 were linked to depression and 16 patients claimed to have suffered suicidal thoughts.

A spokesman for Champix maker Pfizer said: "Depression, rarely including suicidal ideation, has been reported in patients undergoing a smoking cessation attempt. "These symptoms have also been reported while quitting with varenicline.

"A relationship between varenicline and the reported symptoms hasn't been established, but in some reports a link couldn't be excluded."

Mrs Leeming recorded an open verdict.