Bedtime symptoms and conditions

Taking Niaspan my cholesterol dropped from 414 to 186 in ONE MONTH. I get the flush and itching BAD if I eat FATTY FOODS or drink alcohol before bedtime. Other wise, I take 1500mg and nothing bad.

Last night I woke up burning all over and about to explode from the firey heat. Made it to the bathroom where my husband found me, eyes fixed and unresponsive...I was worse than comatose...I was dying. He talked to me and keep me "with him" and was telling me he was going to call EMS when finally I began to comer out of it. My eyes were fixed and I could respond to him. I had turned a gray color.I will never take it again. I, in reality nearly died, not from discomfort, but from a whole system shut down. I had only taken 500Mg at bedtime for about a week. No More for me...ever!!! jcw in San Antonio

I have had every side effect that the medicine states that you can have. I normally don't react to medication, but with this stuff, it is ridiculous! I took it for an infection that I had in my ear and from the very start, I felt loopy every time I took it. Then I began almost like hallucinating when it was bedtime. I was extremely tired, but could not get to sleep. Finally, the morning after I finished the prescription, which also happened to be my birthday, I broke out in hives from head to toe. I appreciate that my ear was healed, but now I have a whole set of different problems just from the meds!

I have been on effexor XR 75mg. for 3 or 4 years and now I have decided to wean off. I never had any noticeable side effects on the drug. I decided to wean off not only because I felt I had been on it ample time but also because my liver enzyme count kept coming back high.My doctor put me on a dosage trail that will wean me off. I don't understand these posts about stopping cold turkey? Why? Why wouldn't you wean off? Anyway I have been taking a capsule every other day for 2 weeks (at bedtime). On my off day I do feel dizzy IE:vertigo, hot flashes, shallow breathing, extra tired. Before these symptoms would begin later in the day maybe around 5 PM and for some reason now 2 weeks in the symptoms seem to begin earlier. My doctor suggested after the 2 weeks that I take 1 capsule every 2 days instead of every other day. Because I have many pills left still I'm going to do 1 every other day for an extra week. To be honest I'm nervous about going every 2 days with out. So I may just end up reverting to 37.5 every other day then every 2 days and hopefully that will be easier. There are options here people. I wouldn't suggest effexor XR for any other depression than major depressive disorder. The healthiest alternative is to not be on anything and instead try less invasive methods such as therapy, consistent exercise etc. To each there own? Like I said the exception would be major disorder. Good luck.

My 10 year old son has taken Singulair on and off since he was 5 years old and has been on it for the past 3.5 years. My son at an early age was affected by a bad marriage and then the divorce when he was 5 yrs old. So we always suspected that his behavior issues were caused by this and I had done everything I possibly could to give them the help he needed to get over and through his issues. He was held back his first year of Kindergarden and during his second year midstream he was placed in a special class for behavioral problem children. Nothing ever seemed to help him, everytime we would see some progress and encouragement we were always blind sighted by a behavior that was always worse. Two steps forward and them 5 steps backwards. I always knew that his problems would never get better overnight so I just kept on going. He was diagnosed with ADHD but because he has some ticking issues I had to put him on Strattera which was did not do a thing for him. I always described him as my Dr. Jeckyll/ Mr. Hyde child. He could be really good and sit still and behave but I think he had to try really hard to do so. He eventually was always overpower by the impulse to show negative behaviors. Defiant, extremely impulsive, always negative and completely miserable all the time. He also went through phases of compulsions. There was always a compulsion of the month- germs, bathroom habits, noises, repetitive words. He hated school and always complained of a stomach ache which i thought he was always faking to get out of school. He had confrontations in school everyday for most of the day. I often thought some of this was because of being tired all the time. We had battled over bedtime every single night. He was terrified to go to bed alone, I tried everything to get him to sleep alone. I wore myself out falling asleep next to him, I would then go to my own bed only to be up with him half the night going back and forth. I gave in many a night and slept with him just so we could get a good nights sleep. At age 8.5 I finally got him to go to sleep alone but the lights haf to be on and he has to know that I am still awake before he will fall asleep. He would always say he didn't want to go to sleep because when he does he has bad thoughts about me and people that he loves. He always had an extremely hard time excepting the word "no"- he would flip out and hit his head with whatever was handy, throw things, break things, scream holler etc. It would take hours to get over it. When he did he would be very remorseful and lovable. He was always in turmoil. Finally in February of this year, this graduated to a new level where he would want to just kill himself and would actually go and pull a knife out of the drawer and just shake with anger as he held the knife to his throat. I was terrified although i really didn't think he was going to harm himself he just wanted to scare me. Then at the end of March when i first heard the news about the possible side effects of Singulair, I had only heard about the suicide effect. Oh great just what I needed was this medicine causing him to do that. The doctor was thinking about taking him off if this summer because he wanted to see if he out grew his seasonal allergies so I took him off immediately. Well I had no idea about the other side effects until my son turned into a completely different kid. School noticed a huge difference in him! His grades went up, his is able to control his behavior, he is happy he is NORMAL. I never suspected this drug as the culprit due to the timing of taking it. Our lives have changed completely. When i first found this site, it seemed as though some of the parents were writing about my child. It is amazing. My son still has some old habits to break but overall he is a wonderful and normal 10 year old boy. He did not outgrow his seasonal allergies but Allegra seems to help in through it. I get so angry- his whole early childhood was ruined by this medicine. He is a labled kid in our school system. This whole experience has opened up my eyes. Thank you for letting me share my story.

In February of 2008 I took 8 capsules over a period of 14 days, The second day I had a hedache and tightness in the chest-abdomin area. Over the next 10 days the symptoms got worse and then my neck and upper back started hurting. I stopped taking the prevacid and started feeling better. Since then I have been waking up after about 2 hours sleep and my arms and across my back are very cold I have sharp pain in my shoulders and have labored breathing. I have been sleeping setting up and that has helped my acid reflux. But this coldness and aching in my arms and shoulders will not let me get very much rest. I still have acid reflux if I eat within 3 hours of bedtime and if I lay down.
I have also tried acupuncture for the shoulder pain , it helps for a day and then it is back. I am 65 and am getting old fast with this pain.

I've been on seroquel for about 5years, ive been taking 500mg a night, it was prescribed after my doctor said i had schizo effective disorder when i was 19 years old i am now 24. And i feel my life is great execpt for one thing seroquel as it did help me to sleep, and calm me down at the time of my episode back when i was 19, now it has and is still ruining my life. I gained 50kgs which im not sure what that is in pounds probably about 105pounds-ish, i managed to drop about 25kilos but am forever gaining weight and it is a constant battle just to mantain my weight let alone lose the weight, but thats not the worst thing. I am constantly tired it doesn't matter how much i sleep i am still tired i have to go to bed at 9.30pm just so i can wake up at 8am to go to work, and i am so tired all day even after that much sleep and even if i sleep for 12,14 hours i am still tired my partner says that sleep rules my life and nothing is as important in my life than sleep, because im tired my concentration is so bad and my memory is worse, im just in another world and always out of it seroquel runs my life and i hate it im am so scared to come off it, but ive decided that im going to start to do it. and finally rid my life of, this disease which was supposed to help me but has completely taken away my hold on my life, i will not be ruled by seroquel anymore.

I am a 56 year old woman and my doctor started me on 10 mg Lisinopril in March. Within 24 hours of starting it I developed a very annoying cough. At my next doctors visit she told me my bp was not down enough and wanted to increase the dosage. When I asked her if the cough could be from the Lisinopril she gave me some samples of Benecar HCT. The only problem I had with that was muscle weakness and some palpitations that went away after a few days. When I got the prescription filled I found that my insurance didn't cover it and it was quite expensive so I called my doctor back and she wanted me to try the Lisinopril again at 20mg and see what happened. That very same night the cough came back with a vengeance, along with dizziness. I decided to try to tough it out but after ten days now the cough is so bad it's unbearable. It keeps me up at night and I cough till I gag and cry. On several occasions I have coughed until I vomited. I couldn't take it any more and stopped taking it two days ago. I called my doctor today and she told me to stop taking it and now we're going to try Norvasc.

I took my son off Singular a month ago, some slight improvements with the sleep and behavior problems. I voiced my concerns with my doctor twice now he looks at me like Im crazy and then he goes on the PC and says he cant find any of these side affects im talking about. My son was an appointment to see an allergist specialist.

I have been on geodon for about one year. My dosage have been changed too many times to count. I am presently taking geodon 60mg, lamictal 200mg and lunesta at bedtime. On some nights, I am unable to sleep and I have to get up at 430 am. I am very depressed and I feel that nobody understands what I am going through. I don't know which of my meds are causing which side effects, but I need a change. I am 5ft 7in tall and I now weigh 118# (one year ago I weighed 142#).

My symptoms are the same as all (anxiety, mood swings, low sex drive) and I plan to have this thing taken out ASAP. It has been so bad lately that I cannot function. I've had more panic attacks than I can count in the last couple of weeks. What I want to know is how people fare on the other side of things. I would imagine it takes a while for your body to regulate after removal, but how long. And to echo- no more artificial things in my body.
Side note- has anyone tried cold shower therapy, apple cider vinegar or lemon balm for the anxiety? (******)

Our son started taking Singulair when he was 2 for severe allergic rhinitis and cough variant asthma (in addition to Zyrtec, which didn’t control all of his symptoms). He is 5 now. For the last three years, he has been an increasingly violent, difficult, defiant, argumentative, volatile child who has intense mood swings--one minute he’s laughing uncontrollably, the next he’s weeping over nothing. His doctor and therapist recommended that we see a psychiatrist to have him evaluated for bipolar disorder, which used to be unknown in children. Because he has such chronic sleep problems, the doctor also suggested we take him off Singulair (and increase his Zyrtec dose) to see if it improved his sleep issues. Within a week, he was sleeping much better and was a calmer, happier, gentler boy. He suddenly could take “no” for an answer without flipping out and trying to hurt me. We thought that we were just in an unusual, calm window that would shift either to mania or intense sadness or both, any minute. We also thought that his behavior change might be due to sleeping better. We were enjoying the rare reprieve. Over the last weekend, his springtime allergies really flared up. We gave him Singulair on Monday and by noon, he was completely out of control. I had to strap him into his car seat at one point to keep him from hurting either me or himself. It finally occurred to me that Singulair might be causing his “bipolar” disorder. Of course, we stopped the Singulair. After two days he was a new boy. Yesterday, I Googled “Singulair bipolar children” and got a few hits. I am stunned to read how similar other families’ experiences have been to ours and I feel sick that we gave this drug to our child for three years.

HI EVERYONE I HAVE BEEN TAKING L24 FOR 3 MONTHS NOW AND I HAVEN'T HAD ANY SIDE EFFECTS UNTIL RECENTLY I SWEAT VERY BADLY AT NIGHT IS THEIR ANYONE ELSE LIKE THIS. BUT OVER ALL I LIKE THE PILL AND IT'S VERY HELPFUL

Thank God for this website because it confirms my feelings that Yasmin was causing very negative side effects. I gained 15 pounds in about 2 months, feel very agitated most of the time, very sore breast most of the month, decreased sex drive, oversentitivity to touch, and sometimes feel shakey and have dizzy spells. I have broken out in a rash on now several spots on my arms, and have had little bumps all over my back almost since the beginning of taking Yasmin. Today, because of reading these postings, I have realized all this negative crap has come around since I started taking this pill. The rash on my arms didn't start until 3 months after being on the pill and it is at its worst right after I take the pill in the morning. By bedtime it is very light, and by the next morning it is almost gone. I understand that all drugs effect people differently, but from my experience, this is a very scarey bcp and everyone should think really hard before trying it.

I wrote an earlier post but I am now reading alot of your posts where you say your child experienced FEAR on Singulair. That is so interesting. When my son was on it for around 3 years he would never sleep alone in his own bed and he would have episodes every night that would last up to 3 hours at bed time because I would try to get him to sleep in his own bed, even at 8 years old. I thought he was possessed!!!! He would scream and fight me and I would literally have to hold him down to get him to stay in bed. It was horrible. I'm not sure how a hullicination would be described but maybe that was part of it. All I know is that he turned into a totally different child. It was something out of a horror movie. I eventually gave up and let him sleep in our bed cause it was exhausting. He would just make blood curdling screams and the terror in his eyes was horrific. Then the next morning he would be fine like nothing had ever happened.
Now that he is off of Singulair he will sleep in his own bed with the light off all night. It was an amazing turn around. He also told me he's not scarred anymore.. Who knew????? Has anyone else experienced anything like that with their child????

Both my children, ages 4 and 7, are currently taking Singulair chewable tablets for their seasonal allergies. They have been doing so for about three months. At first, I was not consistent in giving them the medicine. It wasn't until recently that I decided I should give it to them as prescribed, once daily before bedtime. During this time I heard about an incident linking this medication to a suicide. I shrugged it off thinking this could not happen to my children. Little did I know that this medication has other serious side effects linked to it. For the past few weeks, my own 7 year old daughter has experienced many of those side effects including stomache aches, headaches, trouble falling asleep, irritability, mood swings, crying spells, and traumatic nightmares. She used to be a fun loving child who loved waking up to go to school. Now she does not want to get up in the morning and hates going to school. She cries easily over the smallest thing and complains frequently of headaches and stomach aches. My son on the other hand has become overly aggressive and I had concluded that maybe his video games or cartoons were to blame. Well, today I found your website and I will take them both off the medication indefinitely! Their allergies were not as severe to begin with so I figure that they should do okay without it. I will probably look into more natural/ herbal remedies to soothe them when they do get their allergies. I will definitley be reporting back as to their results.

Thank you so much for all the information! My son was prescribed Singulair pills this fall. He has been taking them for seasonal allergies and we had no problems. These were the sample chewable kind. Then came the pills... Unfortunately I did not see the news or read the article about the side affects of Singulair. Within 4 days my happy well adjusted 10 year old had serious sleeping problems along with stomach aches. He will wake up screaming and crying and cannot tell me what is wrong. He said he had a nightmare but doesn't remember what it was about.

My husband was away on a business trip when I started him on the medicine. He came back to a very unhappy and sleepy child. I asked my son what he was scared of and he asked me to tell daddy that he does not feel safe while he is out of town. He can't sleep unless he is by one of us. He's not safe. His bedroom is 15' from our bedroom! He loves his doctor and begged that I call Dr. Becky so he can talk to her.

I could not take this anymore and started thinking about what was wrong. I went through all his activities, friends he's played with, school problems, anything! Then it hit me, effects of Singulair!

Wow, what an eye opener. Fortunately my husband did not have him take it this morning. He will not be going back to this medication. Ever!

Thank you for the information once again. I hope everyone's child gets better. Everyone wants a happy well child. No child should have to go through this. They have enough pressure as it is without the meds making things worse.

Maeri

I've been on trileptil for about 2 years now and am up to 600 MG and I'm 20 years old having all these side effects! But yet my mood is better then ever I'm doing great besides my frustrations with the side effects! I just need to weigh the pro and cons of if it's worth taking with all these sevre side effects!

I just started Celexa 2 weeks ago, and so far it is making me very tired. I am taking it for pms symptoms like irritability and anxiety. The first night I took celexa, it made me very sick. I had terrible diarrhea, I was sweating, extremely dizzy, and finally spent about 2 hours vomitting. My doctor then said to take only 1/2 of a pill (10mg) for 3 days with food, and then take the whole pill (20mg) after several days if I can tolerate the 10mg. So now I have been taking the 20mg at night for about 2 weeks, and I haven't felt anything different except that I'm extremely tired all the time. I could literally sleep for 16 hours a day if I could. I usually run in the mornings, but I am too tired for any exercise. I just have no energy, Will this get any better? If I don't get my energy back in the next couple weeks, I am going to stop taking it.

I just wanted to post an update on my son. I posted his story on Sunday since hearing about this investigation. He took his last Singulair on Saturday night and every day I see my happy boy coming back! He tells me that he has had a great day at school for the past two days, and that he has decided he isn't as "stupid" as he used to be! He also comes to me for hugs and kisses now and for the last two nights at bedtime he has said he just loves me so much that he feels like he can't stand it and he likes to fall asleep hugging my arm! This has not happened before. He was a loving toddler before he was put on this medication for asthma at three years old. Not long after that he became very hard to please, very sad, at times violent, even throwing metal tonka trucks at his big brother and laughing when he cut him! He has had leg pain, constant stomach pain , night terrors and was convinced that every where we went people just would not stop staring at him...I could go on and on. We went out to eat last night and he did not even notice anyone "looking at him" and was even making cute funny faces at a little toddler at the next table to make him laugh. I am so glad to find this website to see that I am not alone in all this. As for the people who are saying that we are making these claims up, I am not pursuing any action toward anyone on this, I am so happy that my son is returning to normal and no amount of money could replace this feeling! If any other parents would like to email me for support and a shoulder to lean on, feel free to email me. Laura jtolto@aol.com

I can hardly believe what I have read on this board. It is my son's story repeated over and over again and the sad fact is that I never put 2 and 2 together until I saw the news stories last week. My son has been on Singulair for years (he is now 7 years old) along with other drugs for asthma. We recently started taking him to a therapist because of his extreme unhappiness, violent temper tantrums, bad nightmares, many tics, and overall negative attitude. I took him off the singulair 5 days ago and cannot believe the results so far. My son is not affectionate in any way, does not even like a simple pat on the back, no hugs or kisses for sure. Two days ago he came over and gave me a kiss and a hug out of the clear blue. I cannot express enough what this meant to me. I have 3 other children that can't get enough of hugs and kisses, but coming from my 7 year old it just brought me to tears. The hugs have continued and he even told me that he loved me. The therapist had me convinced that he had a sensory deprivation disorder... until now. I cannot believe that until now I have not heard anything metioned in the news and that the medical professionals are so quick to dismiss claims against Singulair.
I am so thankful that I have found this website and for all of the people that have taken the time to include their experiences as it is evidence that there are serious problems when it comes to prescribing Singulair to children. I cannot help but to be saddened when I think of all the years I have lost to this with my son. All the time spent in frustration and tears over what I thought were serious behavior issues on his part. Not to say that I never expect any negative behavior out of a child, but certainly not like I have had to endure in the last years. The last few days have been amazing...I pray it continues. Shame on Merck for not being forthcoming and only keeping their bottom line in mind.

I have got to share my great news with anyone who will listen. My daughter has been Singulair free since Friday of last week. She has no idea that we are not giving her this pill at night and we haven't discussed any of our recent findings in front of her. In other words, she has no incentive to behave any differently than she ever has. The changes are so dramatic that at times it's hard for me to believe. On three different occasions today she made note of her positive change in mood (keep in mind she is 7). Right after school when she was going over some of her graded papers she pointed to a smiley face on her paper. She said, "Mommy, that's how I feel today." I replied, "That's great honey. Is there a reason why you are so happy today?" She stated, "I don't know why, I just am." Then a few hours later I overheard her talking to her younger brother at dinner say, "Will, I haven't cried at all today." Of course he didn't have much of a reply. Then at bedtime, she said, "This has been the best day ever!" These are all statements that quite honestly I have never heard her say before. It warms my heart to know that I do have a "normal" child in there. She's been on Singulair since she was 3, before she could verbalize many of her feelings. All we have known are negative, grumpy feelings and emotions.

But these are not the only changes we have noticed. I have had to wake her up for school the last two mornings in a row (hasn't happened since she began school). She has always been such a terrible sleeper and seems to never really get as much as she needs. She hasn't been so obessessive in the last two days about playing with her best friend. She actually asked if she could play cars with her younger brother instead of going to the park. She has eaten about half as much as she normally does. She has developed such a ferocious appetite that weight has become a huge problem. She has handled disappoints in stride when the same trigger would have totally set her off a few days ago. The list really does go on and on.

I can honestly say that the only thing that has changed is the absence of Singulair. I pray that I continue to discover more of my daughter's great qualities.

I have wondered so many times over the last few days, "What if I hadn't been listening to NPR?" I would have had no other reason to look into the matter further. All of our stories need to be told to the greater media. There are millions of children on this drug and based on this message board, millions of children sufferring negative side effects. Please join me in this crusade!

I was on Singulair for a while and it seems to really help my allergy symptoms. i was supposed to take it at night. I kept forgetting to take it and then w/o the intent to I stopped. After being off of it for a while, I just started taking it again. I made an effort to take it at bedtime. Every day I would wake up remembering the weirdest dreams you could ever imagine. My doctor recommended I take it in the morning. This seemed to help w/ the dreams. I do feel however that it doesn't help my allergies as much. I am going to be more vigilant w/ watching for side effects from it. I am a 38 year old woman.

I have been on Topamax for several years now for crippling migraines. I now take 125 mg at bedtime. I once tried to take myself off of it but, the headaches came back worse than ever So... I went back on. some say that it works because migraines are like a type of seizure. I sure don't know but I'll do anything not to have them like I used to. Recently at night my arms and legs get numb; sometimes one side sometimes both sometimes all I feel is my trunk. It is really scary, but more scary for me is the headaches with the intense nausea that accompanies them. You just can't function. Lately I also feel very tired too! Every one tells me it is just stress from work and "perimenopause" (just what I need more hormonal fluctuation to cause headaches) I really wonder if all this increased fatigue could also be the Topamax ... I mean I could easily sleep 11 hours per night if you let me! Has this happened to anyone? Did perimenopause complicate your treatment?

My daughter is 20 years old and a chronic asthmatic with severe allergies. She has been on Singulair for 8 years. She has been complaining and in some instances begging her asthma doctor for a reason for her insomnia and restless sleep over the last several years. She takes other asthma and allergy medications. He told her to not take her Xopenex inhaler before bed, as that may be causing the problem, that didn't help at all (sometimes a Xopenex nebulizer treatment is needed for her at bedtime and during the night, during asthma flair-ups). Her doctor just switched her from Allegra (which she has been on since she was 10) to Zyrtec, which is helping with allergies, but not with the sleeplessness. She was taken off of Advair and put on Symbicort in September 2007, this made her asthma worse requiring Prednisone off -and -on since January. She is back on Advair and doing better, but the sleepless nights continue...

We are seriously contemplating taking her off of the Singulair. We aren't 100% certain this medication is causing her insomnia/sleeplessness. However, as she explains it..."If I could get one really good nights sleep, I would go off of the Singulair in a heartbeat". Our fear is that by going off of the Singulair that her asthma will worsen.