Aggressiveness symptoms and conditions

My experience with Topamax was unreal. My doc gave i to me for anxiety/depression/weight loss. The weight loss began working right away but so did the disaster. By the time I had been on Topamax four months I was fired from my job, having an affair with my husband's best friend, spending $1000 on a credit card no one knew I had and spent 10 days in a psychiatric ward. There they determined that the Topamax had made me manic. A feeling of unreality had set in along with an intense feeling of well being, and aggressiveness. I am putting my life back together now after getting divorced, finding work in a new field, and trying to repair the damage done to my relationship with my kids.
My best friend called me tonight to tell me that her daughter who is also taking Topamax has become almost anorexic, is also getting a divorce, is now on medication for heart palpitations and will not speak to most of her family. It IS dangerous!!

I was taking Lamictal for 2 years. I was diagnosed with a "light" case of bi-polar. Not the highs, only the lows. I am not too sure that I wasn't just going through some really rough times in my life and had had enough. Couldn't take the stress. Anyway at first I had dry mouth, bad constipation, belching in the evenings and lots of it, some female itching and similar issues (sorry but just want to help here), couldn't handle any alcohol, loss of hair, problems sleeping, outbursts of anger towards mate and irritability, aggressiveness at time, loss of memory and loss of concentration, scatteredness, lots of hair loss and sensitivity to sun. I wanted to be a trooper and make my psychiatrist happy so stayed on it. I got lots of good things from it, like can roll with the punches of life better, can really easily speak up for myself and defend myself when I need to. Don't beat myself up like I used to. So, lost some of the sensitivity that I needed to lose but can't do without my memory. It had been so bad that friends and family would comment and I was embarrassed. Also, my mate shouldn't have had to deal with some of the rage that would show up when things were taken wrong. Oh, I had one of the strongest panic attacks that I can imagine a person living through. I had never had one before, and haven't had one since. I stopped this drug cold turkey. It felt like a few weeks of jet lag. Take multi-vitamins and minerals, also fish oils. Only the highest quality. Eat really healthy, exercise, drink lots of water and rest a lot...whatever you do, don't stress out if you are coming off of this drug. This is actually a very useful medication, however, in my opinion it needs to have more research done about it.

Last Tuesday, my son was prescribed Singulair by our pediatrician. He was also prescribed Pulmicort by nebulizer at the same time. Within a couple of days, I was noticing a dramatic change in his personality. He's only 21 months old and normally a very happy, lovable, easygoing little boy. He did a complete 360. By Friday, I had to take a day off from work, as I was too scared to send him to daycare. He took his last Singulair chewable tablet on Friday night. Saturday was his worst day by far. I was in shock by his behavior. He was extremely aggressive, punching and slapping anyone who came near him, he was throwing things, throwing himself into walls, etc, just completely out of control. I contemplated even taking him to the hospital, but then started doing some research online. I had my mother contact a pharmacist whom we trust, who advised for us to stop the Singulair, as if he was having any side effect, it would more than likely be from that. On Sunday, I started to see some changes in him. Yesterday he was getting back to normal. Today, he's that much better. We actually went back to the pediatrician this morning and I'm actually thinking of filing a formal complaint against the dr. as he basically swore up and down that his side effects weren't from the Singulair. Well as a parent, does anyone really think I'd want to put my child thru this?? It may be different if he had behavioral issues prior to this, but this came completely from left field. I am beyond upset right now, pissed off that this drug can be on the market. How many children have to be affected??? This is very scary to me. My son was only on Singulair 4 days, and I feel guilty and angry that he had to go through even that short period of time on the drug. And then to have a pediatrician basically discount me and say that it has nothing to do with singulair is a complete slap in the face! I won't stop speaking out against this drug and hopefully it will inform other parents of these harmful consequences!!!!

I feel so grateful to have come across this website, I had mine inserted almost exactly 2 years ago and I take responsibility for the fact that I did not do adequate research at the time but relied on by gynae...I have never really experienced side effects from any medication I have been on so I though this would be the case with the mirena as well...well not so...

I too have battled incredibly to lose my weight since the birth of my son in Jan 2007, despite the fact that I have NEVER been this healthy in all my life, have been running now for the last 6 months and just recently completed a half marathon - so its not like I'm just being a lazy bones, have also given up my chocolate fetish since his birth.

The worst has been my skin problems. Not only to I have acne ALL the time, there is never a day that I do not have a pimple, they are deep-seated pimples which are swollen and hurt like small boils.

Also experience bloated tummy and thought it was too much carbs, have gone a more natural diet route where I avoid combining carbs and proteins and still my tummy is bloated...

Itchy feet drives me crazy, no amount of scratching relieves it!

Low sex drive...definitely

Also aggressiveness which is not like me at ALL to the point where in the last couple of months I have really considered going to seek medical advice.

It now all makes so much more sense and I will be making that appointment to have it EXTRACTED ASAP!!!!!

Have been trying to look into some sites regarding lisinopril and aggressiveness/mood swings. My husband has been on 10mg lisinopril for the past year and a half with great effect. One of the nice side effects was it seemed to reduce his aggression/anxiety quite a bit. I recently started to get the drug through mail order instead of my pharmacy...whoa, this guy has been like I have not seen him in a long time...from hating everyone to life is great....

My question is can there be a significant difference in the generics of this drug that it would have different effects on the same person??

My 86 year old father was recently started on Prednisone therapy for about 5 weeks to treat aggressive eczema. Since the initiation of the first does, he has had extreme mood changes. The worst one has been aggressiveness and irritability. He was on 40mg daily for 2 weeks and has been weaned down to 10mg this week and then 5mg next week. He also had sleep disturbances at night which kept the rest of us awake at night. Fortunately, the geriatrician gave him a prescription for Seroquel to calm him down. When he became angry, he had the strength of many men. He was paranoid and was verbally inappropriate. All I can say is that this is not my father and I have 2 more weeks left of drug therapy. With chronic renal failure, he is likely to carry the side effects a little longer. I wonder if he will swing to the other side of the pendulum when the prednisone is completely finished! In any case, his eczema is almost resolved and the itchiness is gone.

This is a follow-up. I have posted about our experience before, but to summarize: 6 year old boy on Singulair for over three years for Asthma. Drug worked wonders, but side effects developed so slowly that we thought those were "phases" that would go away. Side effects were just as everyone else reported: nightmares, fears, depression/sadness (we even went to a child psychologist since we thought this behavior was all due to father's deployment), aggressiveness, crying at the drop off a hat (like a 2 year old, not age appropriate), attention deficit, school performance dropped, and also, at the very end, obsessive compulsive behavior.
We stopped Singulair as soon as we heard about the FDA investigation (on NPR, about 6 to 7 weeks ago). Asthma has not worsened, thank goodness, so we make due with the Flovent for now. Most of the side effects were less prominent after some time, however the obsessive compulsive behavior stopped only a few days ago. We have better days, we have worse days, but slowly the better days outnumber the bad, aggressive, and negative ways.
What I read again and again in the postings is that we all assumed our children entered a bad "phase." A phase that just got worse and never ended!
Reading about the very same side effects in our children, over and over again, alarmed me. Taking my son off the Singulair and seeing the improvements, some faster some slower, totally convinced me. I will never ever have Singulair in my house again.

My daughter has been off of Singulair for about 6 weeks now and is still having "explosive" reactions to minor issues. My daughter's personality is better - no more dark thoughts, etc, but the anxiety/aggressiveness is still hanging on. Anyone having similar issues? We are also still dealing with the OCD behaviors as well. She is 4 and I really think her brain chemistry is still altered. At what point should I recognize that this new child may be my new reality? I would really appreciate any thoughts from those of you that have been off for more than 6 weeks. Are you back to 100%?

From Italy in 2003 - special note regarding psychiatric side effect of Singulair. ( I do not guarantee the translation. I did my best.)

From Italy 2003.

The data available in purpose in literature are insufficient. In England (1), after a year from the commercialization of drug (1998) the CSM/MCA had already brought back 44 report of insomnia, but not of other neuropsichiatriche reactions. Zapatero ET to. (2) in the 2000 they have described the case of a child of nine years, treated with montelukast for rhinitis and bronchial asthma that, after 4 days of therapy, has manifested cefalea, feeling unsteady, agitation, aggressiveness and nocturnal terror. The symptoms have been resolved after discontinuing montelukast. According to the data supplied from the data bank of the WHO near the Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) 497 reports were submitted of neuropsichiatriche reactions from montelukast, for a total of 680 ADR. Those more frequently marked ones have been: insomnia (107), nervousness (52), sleepiness (47) and paranoia (41). They are moreover present 8 report of amnesia and 7 thought disorders.

http://www.gruppogif.org/download/GIFsem12003.pdf

I would also like to point out a table that was in the Swedish study that showed what the adverse drug reactions were. It lists that children had night mares, aggressiveness, sleep disorder, abdominal pain, increased appetite, anxiety, fatique and several others. All of these symptoms are similar to what we are reading on this board.

This study was done in a foreign country before anything was ever announced in the American media. If you take this article to your doctor, please don't forget to print the tables. There is a link on the page.

See this link for the article.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6904/8/1

Individual case safety reports in children in commonly used drug groups – signal detection
Gertrud Brunlöf , Carina Tukukino and Susanna M Wallerstedt
Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Regional Pharmacovigilance Centre, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, SE-413 45 Göteborg, Sweden
author email corresponding author email
BMC Clinical Pharmacology 2008, 8:1doi:10.1186/1472-6904-8-1

Conclusion
In conclusion, the present study indicates that ADRs are reported for commonly used drugs in children. The number of ICSRs varies in different groups of drugs. A possible signal for montelukast and psychiatric adverse drug reactions was found, which should be further explored.

Table 2
Description of ICSRs for children in the ATC code R03DC. All ICSRs concerned the substance montelukast.

Age (years)
Dose (mg/day)
Treatment duration (when known)
ADR
SPC (Yes/No)

ADR, adverse drug reaction; ICSR, individual case safety report; SPC, summary of product characteristics
Brunlöf et al. BMC Clinical Pharmacology 2008 8:1 doi:10.1186/1472-6904-8-1

I posted before regarding a study that suggested that montelukast should be studied for possible psychiatric adverse drug reactions in children. I could only find the abstract. I have now located the entire article. I originally thought the study was British but it was done in Sweden. I am going to make an e-mail file. If you would like the full text of this article to take to your doctor, I will send it to you.

Individual case safety reports in children in commonly used drug groups – signal detection

Gertrud Brunlöf , Carina Tukukino and Susanna M Wallerstedt
Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Regional Pharmacovigilance Centre, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, SE-413 45 Göteborg, Sweden

BMC Clinical Pharmacology 2008, 8:1doi:10.1186/1472-6904-8-

Here is the discussion and conclusion.

Discussion
ICSRs were present in 19 of the 30 most commonly used drug groups in children. The number of ICSRs varied between the groups of drugs, the two most reported drug groups being the leukotriene receptor antagonists and centrally acting sympathomimetics. The reporting of new drugs should be expected to be larger compared with old drugs, according to the Swedish instructions concerning ADR reporting. The leukotriene receptor antagonist montelukast was registered in 1998. Consequently, no extra attention to ADRs during montelukast treatment was demanded in 2005. Centrally acting sympathomimetics, on the other hand, were introduced later and the number of ICSRs may be influenced by the increased focus on this drug group. Another explanation for increased reporting rates for certain drug groups may be media attention.

ADRs during treatment with montelukast seem to occur predominantly in small children, the majority in the present study being <15 years old, whereas children according to European Medicines Agency include 0 to 17 years.
In the present study, five percent of the ICSRs in children included serious ADRs. The corresponding figure for adults was 32%. With vaccine reports included, the proportion of serious ADRs has been reported to be 13% in children .

The design of the present study does not to allow conclusions concerning the question whether the number of ICSRs per million DDD differs between children and adults. Lower doses are often used in children, making direct comparisons difficult. Moreover, dose adjustments for children compared with DDD may vary depending on age of the child as well as the drug in question, making comparisons using DDD as denominator inconclusive. The number of ICSRs in the present study is quite small, implying that minor fluctuations in the number of reports can significantly affect the result. Hence, the disposition of ADRs in children needs further investigation.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the present study indicates that ADRs are reported for commonly used drugs in children. The number of ICSRs varies in different groups of drugs. A possible signal for montelukast and psychiatric adverse drug reactions was found, which should be further explored.

I got my IUD placed in about april of 07 i have seen than experience crazy skin problems such as ance i've never had a problem with ance and i'm 25 i have very bad mood changes that are unexplainable now that i have reread the side effects of Mirena i now know why all the side effects began around the same time and now i'm figuring out why! I will be getting it removed. Has anyone else experience really bad mood swings i was so ready to get on depression medications now i'm going to get it removed and will take it from there!!! Please let me know if i'm not the only one

Our normally mild-mannered 7-year-old son has only been on Singulair for a few days, and we noticed immediate behavioral changes including acting out, aggressive behavior, and he even went so far as to hit another child with a baseball bat at baseball practice last night! Because we had also experienced behavioral side effects with Zyrtec (aggressiveness, etc.), we were particularly in tune with the possiblity that sudden changes of this type might be attributable to the medications. We had thought that switching him to the Singulair would help with the allergies and NOT have the behavioral side effects that we had experienced with the Zyrtec, but found instead that it was even worse! I think we're going to stay off all drugs and just buy extra kleenex for allergies!

I am so glad I found this site!! Our 4 year old has been on Singulair for last 3 months. The change in his behavior had been incredible on the very negative side: hyperactivity, irritability, anxiousness, aggressiveness. Somehow for 3 months we didn' t link such a behavior with Singulair. I didn' t know what to think. But then we just didn' t have Singulair at home and he was off for about 8 days and slowly we noticed a change - child started getting back to his usual self. So we discontinued taking the medicine and started researching till found the site. Too sad, but doctors prior prescribing medicine, informed the side effects are very, very rare and usually mild. After having read all the commentaries here, I do not think the awful side effects are so rare, I think they must occur quite frequently, and the bad part is: many parents might not link their kids behavior to side effects caused by Singulair. PARENTS be very cautious before giving this medicine to your kids!!!! We experienced something that I would not want anyone else to experience.
Now we are just hoping things will go back to as they used to be.

I am a seventeen-year-old and I have been prescribed Omnicef twice for strept throat. The first time, a few months ago, I noticed that I became more aggressive and agitated a lot easier (here I might add that I am normally an oddly happy teenager). This is my fifth day on Omnicef and I am suffering from severe depression, for no apparent reason. I've heard of others experiencing the same, and my aggressiveness that disappeared at the same time as my medication the last time around is back again. I wonder if this is connected to the crankiness described by the parents of the toddlers?

i am 29 and had a laporoscopy performed and it was confirmed that i have endometriosis. my bladder was attached to my uterus and as a result of the doctors findings, he recommended a 3 month course of lupron injections(once a month). prior to surgery he informed me of the side affects that i would experience would mostly mimic that of a woman going through menopause. two days later i was miserable. i started looking online and found many women who seemed to have suffered more than benefit from the injections and the unfortunate part of all of this is, i feel like im stuck with these chemicals running through my veins for potentially longer than i was ready to commit to. unlike most, my pain was bearable. with four advil on the first day of my period when cramps were the worst i would be fine. i would much rather endure that type of pain than the side effects of lupron. bone density loss, potentially permanent joint pain and all the other scary side effects that i've read from other women far outweighs the menstral cramps i would get once a month for a few hours. i understand that lupron not only helps with pain but helps decrease the aggressiveness of endometriosis in some women. but quite honestly, if i've lived for 29 years fairly normal, i'd much rather get on the pill and schedule for another laporoscopy in another 29 years and laser off what ever build up i get a that time!

I have a host of side affects to acknowledge. First the teeth clenching in an issue, it is messing my bite up. Second loose bowels and occasional diarhea. I can deal with the lack of sexual appitite but my girlfriend thinks I don't like her, she starts calling me a fag!
Worse of all I am lacking the aggressiveness towards life and personal accomplishments, I fear that I will turn out a broke but happy man. I walk around being somewhat tired and carefree about life, bills and just about everything.
I don't pick arguements with my girlfriend and overall Zoloft has been great but, I am concerned with being a happy loser!

Numbness in lips and tongue about 30 minutes after taking my dose. This numbness usually lasts about 20 minutes or so. Vivid nightmares accompanied by night terrors (screaming). Frequent headaches and chest pains. Musculo-skeletal pain, concentrated in the joints. Aggressiveness and grouchiness.

Has anyone experienced behavioural changes on Advair, such as increased aggressiveness, problems with anger management, etc? If so, I'd be interested to hear from you. Thanks.
HBM