Attention problems symptoms and conditions

Hi I've been on topamax for 4 years . Had all the side effects...weight loss,tingling in hands and feet,no memory and speech problems! I was taking 600mgs a day! I take it for epilepsy! I was on the highest dose. my doc then weened me from top. to zonegran 600mgs. It's very similar to topamax. For me it is not helping me as much as the topamax. I think it's a great drug!!!! I did not loose hair, no constipation, no rapid heartbeat for me! I am going back on it . Yes sometimes I would get in a hostel mood and can't spell shit , but for me it's all GOOD !

WOW! I just came upon this site after hearing about the singulair warnings from my dad. I have an 8 year old daughter on singulair, zyrtec, and advair for asthma since she was 5. Thursday night we came back from a meeting with a psychologist for an educational evaluation (recommended by the school). She has had problems with concentration and learning at school since first grade (she started singulair just before entering 1st grade). Prior to that, there was never any issue, in fact she was tested as a very bright girl by a different psychologist (at age 4 for admission into private school). The current psychologist diagnosed her as ADHD-NOS and recommended medication and suggested a speech therapist for a minor speech problem. The ADHD-NOS is because she feels she has ADHD without all the hyperactivity or true attention problems (no "classic" ADHD symptoms). Since we were having her evaluated, we also mentioned her horrible mood changes and temper. She falls apart over little things and gets very angry with her siblings, yelling about how she hates her life and wishing she didn't have a younger brother. Along with this, we were having her evaluated by an ENT for her sleep problems (very restless sleep, falling asleep during the day when others don't- she already has had her tonsils and adenoids removed). My daughter also has a poor appetite (she used to complain on stomach pains). This was just not the same, happy, energetic child I had a few years ago.
The next morning, I called the pediatrician and told him that I wanted to take her off all the meds. I felt they were causing her all these problems and he agreed that they may be. We have decided to take it one step at a time. The pediatrician feels it may be all interrelated. I am so shocked to see the number of kids with the same problems! I wonder how many of these kids are being diagnosed as ADD/ADHD because of these meds? It never occurred to us that these meds could be causing her so many problems over the years. As parents, we assumed her problems were just because of sibling rivalry, a picky eater, boredom at school, etc. It all makes sense now. My husband is a cardiologist trained at Hopkins and Harvard and it never occured to him that these meds could do this to a child until Thursday night when we were told to give MORE meds to our daughter. Hopefully, we will see improvement in our child and that no long lasting damage has been done.

I have a 10 year old daughter who took Singulair from age 3 until this past November. She has severe asthma/allergies. When she was 6 the night terrors started I informed the pediatrician of this, but they said she probably had sleep apnea. Her concentration level kept her in trouble in school. I never considered that it might be the Singulair. She developed a speech problem and the school speech teacher referred us to a speech pathologist because they thought she might have vocal fold dysfunction. Several specialists later, we wound up at an allergist's office who IMMEDIATELY took her off of Singulair stating that it was a dangerous drug and should have never been prescribed to her.

Her health has IMPROVED off of the singulair and we are doing allergy shots and symbacort with allegra. I wish I could have saved her the emotional roller coaster ride - all because of this drug.

This fall, our 3-year old son went on singulair to combat seasonal allergies and "reactive airway disorder." Shortly after he started the medication, he started having terrible mood swings and when he would get angry, it would go into a rage. This was not typical for our son. We thought that he was entering the awful 3-year old stage and that he was starting to show behavior problems. We have been working very hard with him to help him control his anger and moods, but we will be taking him off singulair tonight to see if that makes a difference!

My 7 year old son has been taking Singulair for about 2 years now. He has suffered from asthma since he was an infant and started with Pulmicort, then Zyrtec, then Singulair with Claritin (adding Albuterol and Flovent during periods of wheezing) as he aged. We have changed meds often due to concerns about staying on a steroid (Pulmicort) and noticible behavior problems (Zyrtec) and were assured by his doctor that Singulair does not have the same side-effects as the others. After reading so many of the other postings on this site, we are pretty certain that his unusual behavior (ADD like attention problems, fits of crying for no reason, inability to explain why he is doing things, acting out, etc.) are possibly the result of the Singulair. Like many others who have posted on this site, my son had always been a sweet well-behaved child who people loved to be around. However, over the past couple of years we have noticed more and more incidents of inappropriate behavior in school and nothing we have tried has worked to resolve the behaviors. He basically annoys others to the point that they avoid being around him and recently classmates have asked his teacher to move them to another table so they do not have to be bothered by him. Yesterday he cried uncontrollably for over 20 minutes when a toddler broke apart a Lego design he had just finished. I am going to stop the Singulair today and see if we notice any improvements over the next few weeks. I know we are at risk of asthma attacks without it (it definitely controls his asthma as he has not had an attack since going on it), but will continue the Claritin and have Albuterol if needed. NO medicine is worth taking if it can have such an impact on a child's behavior! I just hope, if it is the meds that have caused his behavior, that it is reversible after he is off and he will go back to beging the great kid that he used to be.