Was his violent behavior caused by anti-smoking medication?

Q: I live in the U.K. On Christmas Eve my boyfriend had been using Champix for some months. He was drinking and went berserk for no reason, assaulting me and destroying my apartment.

As far as I know, he has no past mental-health problems or history of violence. Could Champix have contributed to his frightening behavior?

A: The stop-smoking drug varenicline is sold in the U.K. as Champix and in the U.S. by the name Chantix.

It is impossible to determine whether this medication was responsible for your boyfriend's behavior, but the Food and Drug Administration has received reports of "suicidal thoughts and aggressive and erratic behavior in patients who have taken Chantix."

Q: My daughter has excessive nosebleeds. Do you have any herbal or home-remedy suggestions?

A: You may want to start in the pharmacy. There are three products to consider: Nosebleed QR (www.biolife.com and 800-722-7559), NasalCEASE (www.nasalcease.com and 800-650- 6673) and Seal-On (www.seal-on.com).

As for home remedies, our favorite would be to put a wad of cold keys down the back under the shirt. We cannot explain why this might work, but we have heard from many readers that it is amazingly effective: "When I was a little girl in rural North Carolina, my daddy knew to stop nosebleeds when someone in the family had one. He put a bunch of car keys down her back. The nosebleed stopped pronto. He was uneducated, but the remedies that he used worked for us."

Q: My mother-in-law uses castor oil for bruises. At Christmas, my sister-in-law sat down in an old rocker-recliner chair. It went crashing to the floor, and one corner landed right on top of my mother-in-law's foot.

We all urged my mother-in-law to go to the hospital to make sure no bones were broken, but she refused. Instead she slathered the top of her foot with a generous amount of castor oil. She said that castor oil applied immediately to a bump reduces swelling and prevents bruising.

I didn't believe it until the next day when I saw that her foot was fine!

A: Castor oil contains ricinoleic acid. This compound has both pro- and anti-inflammatory effects (European Journal of Pharmacology, Oct. 27, 2000). Regular topical use seems to improve pain tolerance, but no one has studied an anti-bruising effect.

In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them c/o King Features Syndicate, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019, or via their Web site: www.peoplespharmacy.org