Asthma medications symptoms and conditions

Our 11 yr. old daughter was prescribed with Singulair. She started taking it today with much hesitation from her parents. She was on this medication years ago for her mild asthma, but her mood swings/depression were terrible. We have a new ENT now and he promises that the mood swings/depressions are NONSENSE and that these rumors were put to rest years ago. We will be watching her side effects closely, but my question is if Singulair helps so much, what other medication can someone take that does not have these side effects? What is the alternative? She is also going to see a pediatric pulmonologist in August.

My son is almost 3 and was on Singulair for about a year and a half. We adopted him at 6 months old and for the first year he had pneumonia nearly every other month. The doctor suspected asthma and put him on nebulizer treatments and as well as Flovent and albuterol through an aerochamber. Not long after that he added Singulair.

I remember as a baby how calm my son was but as he grew his personality changed. I chalked it up to the terrible twos - until I found this website. After reading all of the posts and talking to a friend whose son had taken it for a short time, we IMMEDIATELY took our son off of Singulair. That was 2 weeks ago.

This is a common thread, but the change in him is nothing short of dramatic. He is happier, says 'no' A LOT less, gets along with our 2 year old daughter much better, sleeps better at night and generally does not have the 'meltdowns' he used to have several times a day. It is AMAZING!! He did have some coughing within a few days of going off of Singulair but we also have him on Zyrtec along with his asthma medications and the cough went away.

It's obvious what this drug is doing to children....if you have any doubts talk to your child's doctor but I for one will NEVER use this drug again and will tell everyone I know!

To get the real information in regards to what level of research that is going into this investigation is.go to the Institute for Safe medicine practices click on Quarter watch.
To people like chris555, I believe you are engaging people for sport and say very hurtful things,your day will come and it may just be in the unemployment line.I can only imagine that you must work for Merck or you would not feel so threatened by the good that has come from Parents advocating for their childrens safety.I want you to know, that all who knew our family and our child understand what took place and our reasons for trying to get the proper information where it should have been," on the label". When our child died no one knew about all the added side effects from post marketing reports,which is "a reliable way to track a drugs adverse events".Maybe you should do more research on the legitimate information of causal relationship. Don't be so afraid of a possible drop in revenue for the drug company that I believe you might be an employee of.K. M.

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.

I would like to know who is NOT experiencing side effects from Singulair.
We are not.
My 7 years old started Singulair three months ago because of allergy issues. She had asthma attack every other week, running nose all the time, she was so miserable, she missed many days of school and she couldn't exercise .Since she started to take SIngulair her allergy improved, no more asthma, no more running nose. SIngulair did not change her way to be. She is doing very good in school (she is above the average..) she does piano, ice skating, she is purple belt Tae Know Doe, speak two languages, she is doing great in everything. Of course she has her "bad moments" but which child does not?
I tried homeopathy, but it did not work, she got worst and worst. I was supposed to give SIngulair to my daughter a year ago, I did not because I was afraid of the side effects. But I wished I had started before because I could have avoid so much steroids since she had asthma most of the time. The doctor convinced me to use this medicine when she said " You think SIngulair has side effects, yes sometime it does, but do you know the danger of using steroids so frequently in a little body?" Then I thought I had to give a try. I am glad I did. Of course I keep watching my daughter behavior closely and reading all the possible side effects of this medication. I forgot to say that beside singulair my daughter is also taking Pulmicort, two puffs once a day.

My 8 year old daughter was on singular for 3 years and she was very active and a little hyper, after taking her off of singular now for almost 8 months she has incurred a tic, I have brought her to a neurologist and he says no its not from the medication or a side effect from it but I really think it is, she has a few vocal and 1 involuntary movement, this is so terrible that these medications that you think help your children are really hurting them, my daughter was on asthma medications since she was 3, and then the neurologist suggests that I put her on an anxiety medication I told him NO, you are not going to make my child stoned I will find other ways to help her with this problem because what I have read is there is no medication that clears tics, they go away on there own and I believe this I will not drug my daughter she has been through enough with all this medication that has caused this. So I do believe SINGULAR and a few others are responsible for our childrens behaviors.

I have been on advair for 1 year and it has helped get me off the rescue inhaler but around 3 weeks ago my hair started falling out in clumps. After every shower i have to clean the drain. Advair is the only medication that i take. Will it grow back when i quit taking it? Has anyone had success with other asthma medications with less side effects?

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.

Singulair associated with Churg-Strauss. A study in France and Germany.

Thorax. 2008 Aug;63(8):677-82. Epub 2008 Feb 14. Links
The leucotriene receptor antagonist montelukast and the risk of Churg-Strauss syndrome: a case-crossover study.Hauser T, Mahr A, Metzler C, Coste J, Sommerstein R, Gross WL, Guillevin L, Hellmich B.
Dr A Mahr, Department of Internal Medicine, Hôpital Cochin, 27 rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, 75679 Paris Cedex 14, France. alfred.mahr@cch.aphp.fr.

BACKGROUND: There has been some concern that leucotriene receptor antagonists might precipitate the onset of Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS). A study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between the leucotriene receptor antagonist montelukast and the onset of CSS. METHODS: Medication histories of 78 patients with CSS from France and Germany were retraced by questioning the patients, treating physicians and dispensing pharmacists, and from medical records. Using a case-crossover research design, exposures to montelukast and other asthma medications during the 3-month "index" period immediately preceding the onset of CSS were compared with those of four previous 3-month "control" periods. Odds ratios (ORs) were computed by conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: The ORs for CSS onset were 4.5 (95% CI 1.5 to 13.9) for montelukast, 3.0 (95% CI 0.8 to 10.5) for inhaled long-acting beta(2) agonists, 1.7 (95% CI 0.5 to 5.4) for inhaled corticosteroids and 4.0 (95% CI 1.3 to 12.5) for oral corticosteroids. Montelukast exposure during control periods increased temporally over three consecutive calendar periods of CSS onset from 1999 to 2003 (p(trend) <0.0001). CONCLUSION: Montelukast use was associated with a 4.5-fold higher risk of CSS onset within 3 months. However, the positive estimates obtained for other long-term asthma control medications suggest that this link might be confounded by a general escalation of asthma therapy before CSS onset. The association between montelukast and CSS observed in this study is probably also explained by the increasing use of this medication over time.

PMID: 18276721

First, I would like to tell you what my daughter used to be like. My daughter used to laugh, smile, sparkle and she loved life! My daughter was smart, as her pediatrician had been telling us since she was one. She sailed through life! Then we had hurricane Isabell come through, and she was rushed to the hospital in the middle of that storm for our first asthma attack. She was three at the time. We took her to a Pulmonologist, which she has seen since. She is now 7 going on 8. She was put on Singulair about 4 years ago. Starting kindergarten was pretty much a breeze. First grade came and she complained of headaches, stomach problems, trouble concentrating. Telling me "mommy I can't think". I asked her Pulmonologist, 5 times that year if it were any of the asthma medications. I was assured it was not. now we are in second grade, and she has steadly declined in every aspect of her life. She started having "eye darting" and head movements, which she was unaware of over Christmas. Her teacher kept saying there is something wrong, "but I can't put my finger on it". She retreated from family and friends. Since December we have been through a slew of testing. The first was an EEG, next came an MRI and lastly an 24 hour EEG. All looking for seizure activity. She has seen a pediatric Opthamologist. She has been through testing for ADD....this being the last. She had a serious reaction to an ADD medication last week. When my daughter asked me "mommy, why did God make me this way", the tears just wanted to run. I had no answer. My husband and I both feel that it is NOT ADD! Let me add some facts here...she can not concentrate, she can not focus, she has withdrawn, she has started to have anxiety, she is weepy one minute, and agitated the next, she can not stay on task and finally her grades are dropping to the point of retention. My heart aches for her, I feel helpless. I want to see my girl back, I want her happy smiling face back, I want her to be confident again. I just pulled her off the Singulair last night, after my sister left many phone messages concerning this blog. I have read them with the love only a mother knows, and the pain for each and everyone of you going through this. As I sit here and type this, I can only have hope. This is very difficult to write, and I am not even sure if I have written it all down. What I do know, is that at 2:00 AM last night I took the time to report her side effects to the FDA. Today is a new day, and I hope and pray for my daughter and everyone of you out there dealing with this.

Terry A

My 3 1/2 year old son has been on Singulair for 4 days now. Needless to say, I am grateful to have stumbled across this website when I googled "asthma medications, nosebleed" after he had the first spontaneous nosebleed of his life, yesterday. Since this had never occurred before, I wondered if his meds could have something to do with it. (He is also on Flovent and Ventolin as he has just suffered his second asthma episode in a month. He has been on both these meds before and I have not witnessed any notable adverse effects with these)
I have also noticed a slight shift in his attitude and willingness to do as he's asked since day 1 of Singulair. This is extremely unusual for my very sweet, cooperative, focused child. He also stated today that he did not love his older brother, whom he adores. He has actually hit me and kicked me on several occasions, which is so unlike my little momma's boy, it had me wondering about the Singulair even before I came across this website.

I am also wondering if anyone knows whether Flovent or Ventolin can cause extremely frequent urination? He is running to the bathroom every few minutes at times. (this was happening before starting on Singulair)
His urinalysis shows that he has no bladder infection and sugar is normal. Help!!!

I was on Singulair for about 5-6 years and I rarely had an asthma attack. I had the vivid dreams that are common with Singulair, but that didn't bother me. I also had the occasional earache, but it was tolerable. My last 3 months of taking this drug, I started "seeing things." I would see shadows darting out of the corner of my eye. At the time I was waitressing and I went out to wait on a table that I thought was there. When I looked up to take their order, there was no one there. One night I almost got into an accident because I thought a car was behind me that was tailing me when there wasn't one. It was at that point that I really started to freak out. I thought I was going insane, possibly schizophrenia. One day I was flipping through a magazine and happened to see an ad for Singulair. I read through all the fine print and saw that a rare side effect was hallucinations! It all made sense at that point and I knew I wasn't going crazy!

I stopped taking Singulair and then started to have breathing problems (I wasn't taking anything for my asthma at that point). I went to the doctor and he laughed when I told him about the hallucinations being from Singulair. He told me to go back on it and see if it happened again. The second or third day I started to see shadows again. I lasted about a week and then just stopped and went to Advair. It doesn't help much.

It makes me really sad that Singulair did this to me. It was the only time in my life where I didn't have to worry about breathing. Now I have to take prednisone about twice a year, which I never had to do on Singulair. I just wanted to write this in case anyone else was experiencing anything similar.

I've took a very high dosage of prednisone for 6 years, from the age of ten years old. 17 years later, i still have an extreme moon face. The only thing that has ever helped me was a facial exerciser (a microcurrent devise), but those results can be hard an expensive to maintain. As anyone else ever had a moon face that wouldnt go away even after stopping their prednisone usage after a long period of time? Does anyone have any advice for me, on how i can finally get rid of this horrible extreme moonface? my face and all my facial features are swollen, including my eyelids, this has been goin on for years. I also have suffered for years from severe chronic diarrhea from an illeostomy reversal. Please help me.

After a month on Lisinopril, I started noticing shortness of breath. Then awoke one morning with pain in shoulder and numbness in arm - thought I was having a heart attack! ER diagnosis was asthma. Advair, methylprednisone (steroids) and albuterol helped at first, but after two weeks, breathing problems all came back. Started using a nebulizer which provided only short term relief and was then referred to a pulmonary specialist. He put my on Advair, Singulair (another side effect horror story), Nasonex, Intal inhaler, albuterol inhaler, the nebulizer as needed. Upon follow up two weeks later, it was all still going on! He rx'd another prednisone pack, but NOW he notices in chart that I was taking Lisinopril, which he said is KNOWN to cause breathing problems - and to stop taking it, immediately. Within one week, all of these horrendous asthma problems WERE GONE. It's been two weeks and I have since discontinued ALL asthma medications - everything - not to mention the Lisinopril. How could prescribing doctor and ER doctor mis-diagnose Linsinopril side effects for asthma! How could I? I would like to think that if they're going to prescribe this stuff, they would be familiar with possible side effects as such. I'm just lucky this stuff didn't kill me and that I didn't get rid of my cat!

I am 35 yrs. old and have been using inhaled steroids(albuterol,asmacort,vanceril, and Avair) for the past 16 years. I had noticed my eye vision deteriorating over the last 11 years. I was diagnost with and eye disease called kerataconis. i suspect a connection to my asthma medication use. I can only see effectivly with aid of special lense glasses, or hard contacts. I have since ceased use of Advair, and all inhalers , hoping to halt further progression, and the need for corneal trans plants. Too bad for me that Advair and the drug companies didnt fully do a better job warning the public 11 years ago when it could have made a difference.

My son has been on Advair for several years and is now 9. He is a healthy eater and quite tall for his age but is getting an increasingly large mid section. When I looked on this website and saw that many other people had this side effect it made me hopeful that this may be his problem! Is there any proof that this is a side effect? If so are there other preventative asthma medications that don't cause this side effect?

After my 4 1/2 year old using Singulair for 2 1/2 years we took him off after coming across this site and we are so thankful! He was having teeth clenching, unexplained aggression (he was so happy and easy going til 3), bed wetting, loss of focus , anxiety and the worse one was tics. He would open and close his mouth and some eye twitching. It was so painful to watch. We didn't know what we did wrong, why this was happening to him, where this was coming from? His pediatrician said there is no relation to medication, kids just get tics some times, it will pass. When it's your kid you can't bear to just let it pass. A pediatric neurologist said it was a simple motor tic , (usually age 5-10) which some children are prone to, said some asthma medications can make it worse as they can affect the nervous system. After 6 weeks off the medication his tics, bed wetting and most of the other symptoms were completely gone. It was gradual, initially i saw no change then suddenly it was less and less and then suddenly completely gone. Symptoms have been gone for almost a month now. It is so unfortunate that these horrible symptoms are not listed when your child is given this medication. I am so greatful to this website,

My only side effects other than headaches and great breathing. I have found sigular to be much better than my asthma medications and with less side effects. My puffers would cause atrial fibrillation but since I have been off them the afib is much better and breathing is better than the puffers!

Good medication in my books

I am a 41 year-old man in excellent health. I have suffered from seasonal allergies and bronchitis since I was a child - mainly during April and May. Although annoying, these allergies have had little impact on my day-to-day life. In March, during my yearly physical, I mentioned to my doctor that I wasn't looking forward to spring allergy season. Because of my age, he advised me to stop using Sudafed for my stuffy nose and sinus pain. He said Singulair was approved for seasonal allergies and would also stop my wheezing. I took Singulair and saw an immediate improvement in my allergies - no stuffy nose, watery eyes and no wheezing. In fact, after about five days on Singulair, I felt fantastic. I really could not believe how much energy I had - and my endurance while running was unbelievable. After 10 days on Singulair, I also began to notice I was becoming increasingly aggressive. I would describe the exact feeling as one of extreme agitation. This manifested itself in my yelling at my family and workers at a local home improvement store. It was obvious to everyone, including myself, that something was wrong. At work, home and in our basketball league I am known for having alot of patience. After contacting my doctor I was told a side effect of Singulair can be aggressive behavior. I stopped taking the drug and decided to endure the allergy season as best I could. My wife, who teaches pharmacology at a local university said she had heard these symptoms went away with continued use. I tried Singulair again, although I experienced the same feeling of agitation, it did go away after about one month's use. Today I can report I feel the best I have in 20 years. I credit Singulair with eleminating my need for all other allergy and asthma medications. I tell people I feel so good that I can leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Hello and "Thank You!" to who ever started this sight!!! I have been on Advair for about 2 years. The first 500/50 then cut back to 250/50. Number of attacks was next to nothing. Never breathed better in my life. During that time I had alot of the same symptoms mentioned. Saw the doc yesterday and was given the canned speach about how little of the drug is really absorbed into the system and that the "small" dosage that I was on shouldnt really cause these symptoms. She also told me that GERD and asthma medications are not linked together. I was also told that I am depressed and she would gladly refer me to a psyco doc. The topper came when she told me that there was alot of "bad information on the internet and you should not believe any of it." Hmmm. I quit taking it 3 days ago and can notice a difference. For the better. I plan on looking for a new doctor that is open to new ideas and hopefully can offer me some new treatment ideas. I know I need help, it is just a matter of finding the right doc and meds to use. Thanks for listening!

If you would like to see a pretty comprehensive list of the side effects of using Advair, and also learn of all the complications that could arise from its use and the interactions of other asthma medications, please read our just-launched website at: www.asthma-advair-danger.com You'll find information on medication interactions and even how acid reflux can affect asthma. The website was created to educate others like ourselves and to help asthmatics know the truth. We wish you well.

Listen to your body,
Diana