Accountability symptoms and conditions

I am 44 years old and have been taking singulair for about 4 years. 3 months ago I started experiencing crushing chest pain, tingling in my lower limbs, and felt very stressed out. I went to the ER last Thursday and was checked out for angina - the ER doctor told me I was suffering from chronic severe anxiety. I took Ativan for 4 days and felt better, but now the drigs are gone and I again having constant chest pain. In doing some research I found that anxiety can be caused by imbalance in adrenaline, and so started looking online to see if any of the allergy/asthma meds I am taking (adviar, singulair, allegra) can affect adrenaline. That';s when I found this website. Although i find the testimony compelling, I wish more folks would have poted about how their symptoms improved (or didn't) AFTER discontinuing singulair. Also I've noticed many of the stories are about children not adults; many people are taking more than one med for asthma, and most people's symptoms seem to come on right away whereas I have been taking sinulair for years and only recently have anxiety. I will stop singulair tonight and see what happens, but am wondering if anyone has come across further research that correlates singiulair with anxiety? My job life is really peaceful, I am otherwise happy, work can get hectic but that's true of any job, and I am out of ideas as to why suddenly at age 44, when I eat right and exercise - why get anxiety? Thanks for the posts, I'll try to remember to follow up after I am off Singulair for a few weeks.

I've noticed that my 13 year-old son have developed some repetitive rapid eye movements and a compulsive vocalization similar to a brief laugh since using Singular. Has any other reader experienced similar behavioral side effects in themselves or a child they are caring for while using this product?

My 4 year old Son has had diarrhea from about the last 4 weeks... we have started some tests for Celiac disease but today it only occurred to me today that he has been on Singulair for about that time frame... after all the worry and reading these other storied Im even more convinced that it maybe the Singulair..
Im just hoping that someone might read this sometime today or the next couple of days to tell me if when they come off the singulair how long did it take for the diarrhea to pass. My son had is last tablet 2 nights ago ( so he has only been off it so far for one night. But he still has the diarrhea.. should it have started to come out of his system already.

I am 49 yrs old and was prescribed Singulair for allergy and asthma symptoms. I began taking it 2 weeks ago. I find it extremely effective for both asthma and allergy symptoms. Last week I experienced nausea - this has stopped, so it may or may not have been a 24 hr bug. However, I often have a headache and am generally lethargic and starting to feel depressed. After reading the posts here, I realize these symptoms are most likely associated with Singulair so I am planning to discontinue this drug today.

I have a grandson who is on singulair since he would walk. He is now 5 years old. He has trouble in school, heat racing, out of control tantrums, biting and hiting in daycare. When he is not taking this medicine he is a different child. Parents are doing what ever the physicians order. Please stop prescribing medicines just for a runny nose, it is not worth the side effects.

I am 34 years old. I am a pharmacy tech. I have asthma and allergies. I have taken singulair pretty much every day since it came out on the market. I've had asthma since i was about 10 years old. I took theophylline as a kid. Steriods on and off especially during times when my allergies are bad. I still use Advair during the fall and spring. Every drug has a side effect. However breathing is pretty good damn thing. Do I have days when I feel low? Yeah. Do I sometimes have nightmares? Yup. Are "natural" products the answer. Not always. The fish oil that some of the posters are touting can also cause GI problems. Some of the natural products contain herbs and other plant derivatives that can be harmful for a child that suffers from allergies. Not proactively treating asthma can be deadly. Some of the parents are suggesting steriods as the answer - those can cause weight gain, growth suppression and can lead to a worsening of asthma.

Singulair has never made me feel like I've wanted to kill myself. I was more depressed and angry as kid when my asthma did not allow me to partipate in normal childhood things. I was sad and hated life when I couldn't keep up with friends at recces because I was having trouble breathing. You have to outweigh the costs with the benefits. I am more irritable when I have asthma flareup then I am on a normal day. For me, I choose to breathe. And singulair has been helping me for almost a decade.

I'm not saying the medication isn't causing these symptoms but maybe there is an underlying cause to your child's depression.

Any drug has a side effect. But without medical research and the medications that come with them - people would still be dying of simple diseases and we wouldn't have vaccinations. As a society, as a whole, we are a culture that looks to someone else to fix things and then blames the people who try to fix it. We need to stop being the "hot McDonald's coffee'" society.

So happy to find this site. I never noticed My son never had an eye tick until last month, ironically we started giving him Singular on a daily basis about the same time. My son just turned two and is has also been waking up screaming 3 times every night. Have others reported this same problem...also he is on Pulmicort too, have you read that it is linked to Glaucoma and Cataracts? Do you think that this could be causing the tick? Please HELP! I want a parent's opinion before bringing this up to the doctor...they are so quick to jump to more drugs it makes me sick! Thank you! Any other children with eye "ticks" like really quick consecutive blinks?

OK MY DOC JUST GAVE MY 14 MONTH OLD SINGULAIR THE YOUNGEST IVE SEEN IN HERE WAS 2O MONTHS. WHAT WAS SOME OF THE FIRST SIDE EFFECT THAT YOU ALL SOW THAT I NEED TO KEEP AN EYE ON

I was first given Singulair at the age of 21. At which time, I quit a job in which I have yet (at 28) to match its income. My doctor continued to give me samples as I could not afford the medication. During this time, I was very depressed, contemplated suicide often and was given a serious of antidepressants-non of which helped. For one reason or another, I stopped taking everything. At which time, it seemed I had a new lease on life. I went back to college, finished my degree, and got a job in decorating. My asthma began acting up again, and again I took singulair and again had to be given antidepressants. I wound up quiting that job too and worked a serious of low paying jobs. Again, I quit, and again found the urge to "live" again. I never connected the two, until this past week. I was given singulair again by another doctor on Wednesday. Thursday I had nightmares, Friday I spent the day crying, Saturday night I began to think of leaving my husband (I also did that ALL the other times I took the drug and we've been together 14 years-I love him). Today is Sunday, I normally go to bed around 12 or 1 a.m., but I am making myself stay awake and have all day. This drug has ruined a large part of my life, please, if anyone notices even a little depression with this drug, Stop!!!! It is not in your head, it is this drug!!!!

My daughter is 5 years old and has been on Singulair for about 2 years now. I was at a loss concerning her behavior for the past 2 years. The anger, aggression, tics in her eyes and legs feeling tingling, unable to express herself, and truly not liking herself and thinking we don't like or love her. All this brought us to take her to therapy. And then all this information regarding side effects of Singulair come out. I brought this to her allergist and he like many others brushed it off. I think it is time the medical community looks very close at this drug concerning side effects with children. How many more parents have to come forward with all the same side effects for these educated doctors to realize there is a hugh psychological and neurological connection with this drug for some children. It has been two days now that my daughter stopped Singulair. Her nose is already starting to drip and her cough is back, but I would much rather deal with these side effects of allergies than watching her go though this mental anguish any longer. I have not seen any changes yet, but it had only been two days.

Hi,
I'm a 38 year old woman who went on Singulair in September of 2006. By December of that year I started experiencing heart palpitations,dizziness,and nightmares that stayed with me in my waking hours. By January of 2007 I was having full blown anxiety attacks. My doctor ran every test under the sun and I went to several therapists. By the end of January my doctor had me on Effexor, and several other short term aids such as atavan. The summer of 2007 I started experiencing stomach pains and sever diarrhea. As much as I loved my 20 pound weight loss, it was not a lot of fun. Again every test under the sun showed nothing. This spring I heard of the concerns of Singulair and immediately went off of it. Within a few weeks I felt like my old self. I am still weaning off of the Effexor and my asthma is not as good as it was on the Singular, but it is worth having my health and my life back. I feel that Singular almost ruined 2 years of my life. It should be taken off of the market.

I apologize for the typo. "Responsibility" should be "accountability". It's late, I'm tired!

I am a loving mother of a 5 1/2 year old boy. He has been on Singulair for over 3 years. In this past 3 years my son has suffered in an unspeakable amount. He came down with Rota Virus and was hospitalized at 2. He then came in contact with Pneumonia in the hospital while he was there. They automatically put him on Singulair, Zyrtec, Prednisone, and antibiotics to treat the pneumonia. Since that day, my son has gone though more tests than I have in my entire life. He has had asthma, sinusitis, leg cramping ( to the point he cannot walk for 2 years), IBS, Acid reflux,(they gave him laxatives for a year that made things worse and addicted to them also), stomach pain, constipation and diarrhea back and forth. He also got Erythema Mulitforme TWICE, while on this drug. All of which the doctors said could NOT be caused by Singulair. He has had several Upper GI's and CT scans. Along with Barium enemas, several hundreds of blood tests, and many many pokes and prodded that were not necessary. All since he has been on Singulair. He now has frequent bathroom trips, depression, confusion, and anger outbursts. He also has to go to the restroom every 5 minutes. He has had genital swelling, and many other aches and pains. None of which his "doctor" ever said could be a result of Singulair. I am 100% sure it was!!!! He currently has anxiety and emotional sporadic issues causing problems in school The teachers and counselors say that it is so strange because there is no TRIGGER and the outbursts are completely inconsistent. His preschool teacher and director are sure he has ADHD. Well, we had him tested and he does not have any part of it. He has no learning disability what-so-ever. So that brought me back to square one. He is in a positive loving enviroment. How could he be depressed and want to hurt everyone around him? He cannot sit still. He cries and says he is 'stupid" and "can't think" like the other boys. He has nightmares and cannot sleep alone. He is scared of everyone and everything. So, as I sit here crying, I realized that this has all been a reaction of his "medicine" Singulair. He never should have gone through all of those painful tests, only to prove they couldn't find anything. So many treatments and sound full advice speeches from his doctors. How could they be so naive and selfish in the life of my son?

When I called my pediatrician of 5 years, she told me that " parents that have children with behavioral problems will LOOK for something to blame their problems on." She also said "drug companies only put side effects on their labels to PROTECT the drug companies. (as she laughed at me) They are not always valid". Then she said "if you take you child off of Singulair you will be playing Russian Roulette in his life." Then she said that all children around 5 or 6 go though this emotional time in their lives." She told me that if I take my child off of Singulair that she would no longer be a part of his health regimen for his asthma. She told me to see a Pulmonologist for further treatment.
Who is paying who? This is my son's life???????? I decided to go with my mother-gut instinct and get him off of this medicine. No matter what. He has been a different person since. He is currently going though a lot of side effects and withdrawals (leg pain, insomnia, hic-ups, emotional distress) but every day is getting better. How can the drug companies say that this is a "wonder drug?" There are more reported side effected patients then clinical studied patients! How can a "medication" that stimulates the brain not be connected to other problems? This "medication" interferes with the bio synthesis and action of LTs and has been marketed as NOVEL medication against asthma and allergic rhinitis. Who the hell is playing God here??? The pocket books of Merck or our over PAID "doctors?" Who pays the price? Our children? Or us. Thank god I found this before it was too late. I would not be able to withstand the pain of losing my son due to their lack of scientific evidence. They are lucky I am one of the smart ones. I will not settle for less than Justice for the drug companies and their paid "doctors?" You all end up in the same place. HELL

There are 18 million people on this drug. Most of them are children. Please save a life if not your own child's life. Thank You

Along with uncharacteristic depression from using singulair for only a few months- I experienced ( and still now, after 1 week prior to ending my daily dosage) terrible lower calf cramps I have never experienced before. Not only do I get quick searing pains in my legs at night, but my calf muscles are very sore whenever participating in brisk physically activity. I hope these side effects will terminate shortly- because for an athletic thirteen year old high school freshman, depression, lack of energy and physical pains are not making the beginning of young adulthood a very enjoyable experience

My Daughter has been the same way .. she had the headaches, stomach pain, very depressed .. she has missed 6 months of school she was afraid to go to school, shopping, and being left alone.. I have put her on medication for her depression, and anxiety . i have her in therapy for this... she is not the same child i just want my beautiful daughter back..We are having a hard time with her from school to he social life.. and from her tring to kill herself.. My daughter is only 13 years old...I think someone needs to pay for this... please there must be help out there...How long must this go on before people (FDA, Merck, ALA, etc.) will take this seriously?!?!?!?!
I want my beautiful katelynn back........................
--

I am going to be attending the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) walk on Sunday, October 5th here in St. Paul, Mn. Dr. Paula Clayton, the AFSP National Medical Director will be there and I will have an opportunity to talk with her. Does anyone have any advice for me? I will also be handing out flyers about the dangers of Singulair and spreading the word about the grass roots efforts of Parents United for Pharmaceutical Safety and Accountability. If you have any advice for me please let me know.

Thank You.

My son Tyler was 5 when he started taking it. He was on it for approx. 2 weeks when he started bleeding out from his ears. I phoned Merck and made them do an incident report and mail it to my sons primary care doctor as well as myself. Tyler was in the 2% that had that had happened to. I was infuriated and I tell everyone I know how the I was deceived by not being told of all the side effects.

This past winter we found out that my son had developed asthma. His allergist /asthma doctor put him on Singulair as his preventative. Not two days later a report came across the news that Singulair has depression as a side effect. I immediately called my son's allergist / asthma doctors and was told that these symptoms have been found ONLY in children in their teens. That they are linking something in the med with hormones and it spawns depression.
Even though this is terrible for the parents of teenagers, my son is 6 years old... the chance of this happening to us was slim. Or so I thought.
One morning, to my horror, two weeks later my 6 year old son whom never really watched anything on television without his parents (with the exception of Noggin programs) is talking about how he wished he was never born. That no one would care if he was to die or disappear. That maybe he should just go to sleep one night an just die..... he was getting so angry for no apparent reason, throwing things and yelling all the time... telling me, his mother (we have always been so close) that he wished I were dead and that he hated me...
Needless to say I immediately called his doctors and they told me to stop the Singulair right away. The doctors were shocked that this has happened to a 6 year old and had filled out reports for the FDA that I had to give detailed descriptions of what happened to my son so they could start warning other parents.
Now, four months later and we have our happy go luck son back. No preventative, but the inhaler is doing the job.
Good luck out there if you agree to put your child on this medication. I understand it does not happen to everyone, I just cannot tell or describe to you how horrifying and traumatizing it was to go through seeing my happy go lucky son become this extremely depressed angry aggressive child within two weeks. We are still battling the aggressive behavior, but hey, he is 6 and that could be normal... right?

I will never be sure Singulair changed my daughter because she is a very complex little girl. I just know that when we made some changes that included taking her off Singulair she has done nothing but improve!

My daughter is adopted, she was in Foster Care, she is a very vulnerable little girl. She has been on singulair since the age of 2. We needed to add an anti psychotic to her list of med's some time last year, because she was threatening to kill herself at 8 years old. She often complained of having a bad man in her head that would tell her to do bad things. When we heard about singulair side effects it just felt too coincidental. We made a decision to take her off ALL meds. Since that time she has done nothing but improve she is happy and working hard, the bad man is gone and everyone who knows her says she is a different child. Again we changed many things in her life I don't think we will ever know if singulair is the true cause of her behavior but we aren't taking any chances.

I also want to add that he has been having nightmares a lot as well. And exhibiting some behavioral issues on and off at school.

Again I can not tell you how scary this is. I have no clue where to start or what to tell my congressman. What do I say? Do I make specific reference to Singulair or do I just medicines in general? No offense, but right now my concerns are selfish, and I need to find another alternative to Singulair. I cant bear to have my son experience what I have to deal with everyday with my depression.

He says things like
"I hate myself" and
"This is the worst day of my life"

I am so scared I plan to call his Dr first in the morning.

This is so scary!! I was just looking up "my son says he hates himself" on google, because I was concerned, as I deal with depression and wanted to find out if a little boy saying this (6 yo) is normal or if it may be signs of depression. Weirdly this link for singular came up.
My son DOES take singular for his asthma and has been taking it for about a year on and off. I have tried to take him off because I hate feeling like a pill pusher, but then his asthma flairs up again. So I put him back on it.
But today he has just been whining and crying (he is still crying and screaming for me loudly now!) and I began to get VERY concerned that my son was exhibiting signs of depression. If this is true, we may need to file a lawsuit against the drug companies as there are too many similarities and coincidences with this singulair. It wasn't even a THOUGHT or consideration that the medicine could have been causing this. I just thought that he was growing up and just goind through stages. Now I feel stuck because I don't know whether I should take him off and risk his asthma flaring up, or keep him on and risk his depression gene flaring up. This is VERY scary....

My 9 1/2 yr old son started Singulair in July 2004 when he was 5 yrs old.Looking back now we realize that he started showing signs immediately. We only gave him Singulair in the fall when he had the most trouble with his asthma. His asthma was under control immediately but was not worth the damage that was done. He complained of pains in his legs that I just thought was growing pains. He would sometimes run a fever with no other symptoms of being sick and then the fever would go away. He would also feel like he always had to go to the bathroom, especially after he went to bed. I gave him Singulair at 7pm before he went to bed. The biggest change we noticed in him was the signs of attention deficit. We first noticed that he kept getting out of his seat at dinner time. No matter how many times we told him to sit down he would sit down and then a little while later he would get right back up. We realized after a while that he wasn't doing it to be defient he just couldn't help himself. I asked his Kindergarten teacher if he had trouble sitting in his seat or with attention but she didn't think he was any worse than any of the other Kindergarten kids. In 1st grade, at the beginning of the year, his teacher said he had trouble keeping his attention but then by January she said he was a different kid. We usually stopped giving him Singulair in December. The same thing happened with his 2nd grade teacher. I question his allergist in the fall of 2nd grade but his allergist said Singulair wasn't the cause for his ADHD symptoms. When his 3rd grade teacher contacted us in Oct 07 with the same complaints I realized that it must be the Singulair. I looked online for Singulair side effects and came across this website. I couldn't believe it. I was so disappointed in myself for not doing it sooner but we took him off Singulair immediately. I called his allergist the next morning and questioned him for a second time and he told me that sometimes parents of kids with ADHD just look for something to blame for their childs behavior. I couldn't believe he said it to me. We made an appointment at Children's Hospital Boston to have him evaluated for ADHD just in case but couldn't get an appointment until Feb 08. When we had him evaluated he had been off Singulair for over 3 months. The neurologist said he did not have ADHD. When I asked him if he thought Singulair could have been to blame for the symptoms he was showing and he said there was "compelling evidence" that showed Singulair does cause ADHD symptoms in some children. We were happy that he did not have ADHD but were so sad that we gave him this medicine for 3 years without realizing what damage it was doing. My biggest fear now is that there may be long term damage. All his symptoms have gone away but sometimes he still seems a little out of it and I don't know if it is just his age or his personality or if it might still be some long term effect from the Singulair. He is such a sweet, loving, caring boy and I hope that I didn't do any long term damage by giving his this horrible medicine. I hope that something will be done soon to get this medicine off the market. My prayers go out to all the families who lost children on this medicine. I can't even imagine the pain you are feeling but I thank you for getting your story out and saving other children! I am thankful that I was able to get informed by this website because God knows my allergist wasn't looking out for my son! His asthma has been under control since being off Singulair and just seems like a happier child over all!
Thank you!

This is just amazing to me. My son was prescribed singulair for asthma when he was 8, he is 19 now. I only kept my son on this medication for about 4 weeks. I noticed a HUGE change in his personality, defiant and very fired up. I took him off, because there was just no talking to him. It made a difference, he was back to normal. I said something to his doctor, and he didn't know what to think, he said that the drug shouldn't alter his personality, it's an asthma medicine. I'm glad i listened to my gut instinct and took him off. My doctor just prescribed singulair to me for severe allergies and i wanted to see what the side effects where. I had NO idea i would see the side effect, that i knew my son was having 10 years ago, when this medicine first came out. I am speechless...

I just came across an article on the online "Huffington Post" by Dr. Doug Bremner, who researched the connection between accutane and depression, called "If Prescription Meds Don't Kill You They Might Drive You Crazy" He explains the link between Singulair, Leukotrienes in the brain and depression. There are numerous articles by him as well that are definitely worth reading.

Jenna M.
Parents United for Pharmaceutical Safety and Accountability