Behavior changes symptoms and conditions

We put our 3 year old son on Singulair 2 weeks ago for allergies. It seemed to be helping him. He is a very mild mannered kid that has never been an aggressive child and never bites or hits. In the last 4 days his mood has changed, and he has bitten 2 kids at school, hit one kid, bit and hit his grandpa, has been waking up with nightmares and has been very clingy to me (his mom). After reading the side effects of Singulair last night we contacted the pharmacist and told him what has happened and he told us to take him off the Singulair immediately and contact our Pediatrician. I am waiting for a phone call back now. I am saddened that a medication for Allergies can cause such a personality change.

I have had two sons on Singular. My three-year old had drastic behavioral changes about a month after starting to take Singulair. He suddenly had severe separation anxiety, was crying and whining all the time, did not want to be alone at all. Normally he is very happy go lucky and we did not see his bright cheerful smile for weeks. I took him to his pediatric doctor and described the behavior and she immediately said to take him off the Singulair. After two weeks, he was back to his normal, happy self. My older son is 5 and has been on Singulair for over a year. I consulted with his allergist right away after my 3-year-old was having trouble. I wanted to take him off the Singulair and he advised against it, because my 5 year old has more serious asthma and allergies. When he first started he had nightmares, and when I mentioned it to a friend whose son is also on Singulair, she said, oh, give it to him in the morning instead of night and that will help with the nightmares. That did help. Yesterday, I decided to take him off of it. It seems like he's always coughing and congested, he complains often of growing pains in his legs that will make him scream and cry and beg for medicine to make the pain go away. He becomes emotionally uncontrollable - i.e. he will have crying jags and when I try to console him or ask him to stop crying he'll say he can't help it and he'll say, "You don't understand, I can't control it." He has also complained of headaches and I wondered how would a 5-year-old even know what a headache is? I feel very naive and am thankful for sites like this because you will not always get this information from your health care providers and also the drug companies. If you are like me, and you've ended up in the emergency room and also calling 911 because your child is having and asthma attack, you be be so afraid you'll give your kids whatever the doctor prescribes and you'll look at it as the lesser of two evils - do you want to be in the emergency room or can you live with the side effects. It has taken me a while to get smart about this. There has to be a better solution out there.

My son's pediatrician prescribed Atuss DS to him, for cough and congestion. He acted like a whole different child!! He was moody,(Jackel and Hyde), and cried nonstop at night, wanted to sleep but couldn't rest well. He reminded me of someone on drugs, he was the worst child iv ever seen and he is a happy kid all the time, this is the worst medicine ive ever seen. BEWARE!!! I have cried with my son for the past 4 days waiting for it to get out of this system.

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.

My 3 year old is on 5mg of singular daily for her constant allergy issues and has had NO trouble at all with it. Her personality has not changed.. she's happy, outgoing, friendly and MUCH better than she was before she started the medication. Prior to starting she was constantly dripping from her nose, she had both ears filled with fluid, had bags under her eyes and was tired and grumpy all the time, due to allergies we could not get under control with other over the counter or prescription meds. Since being on Singulair she's been 100% better than she was. I'm sad to hear that others are having so much trouble with it, but I can say that I am happy my little girl is feeling better.

My son is 3 and has been on Singulair since around springtime (I think... I've lost count). Anyway, during this summer we noticed his behavior had just gone straight to hell. At first I was attributing it to the wonderful world of the three year old, but it was just getting ridiculous. He was having countless meltdowns, screaming bloody murder (I mean SCREAMING to the point of going hoarse), hitting, punching, slamming, banging, crying hysterically for ridiculous reasons, yelling out during the night, and showing OCD behaviors. I was fearing that he might have ADHD/OCD until my husband stumbled upon this website. I remember hearing stories about teenagers having horrible side effects from singulair, but didn't think it was affecting my son at 3. As I read the entries on this website I felt like they were talking about my son.

I am taking him off of it to see what happens, but now I'm nervous that his asthma will flare. He's had quite a few asthma episodes since the fall allergy season has started. I suppose he'll need to go for awhile to get everything out of his system to see if the behavior changes, and then I hope to find a new preventative. We have Pulmicort and Xopenex and an inhaler ready!

*UPDATE* Well, it hasn't quite been two weeks since I've taken James off of Singulair and - I am not kidding you - his behavior improved the FIRST day. I want anyone who reads this to know that I am not an "alarmist", I DON'T freak out over everything I read, I do a lot of research (kind of obsessive myself :), so please understand that I am not one to usually write things like this...I mean, I pushed my allergist to give it to him in the first place! There are plenty of kids out there that are fine on Singulair, but some are not. I didn't make the connection to the Singulair since the average three year old is irrational and unpredictable anyway, but I KNEW something wasn't right. It wasn't just tantrums and whatever, his overall personality had done a 180. In the last two weeks my son has returned. He still, of course, has three year old moments, but he is back to the caring, loving, curious, excited, social, happy kid I had last year. One of the worst things we were seeing two weeks ago was bedtime behavior. BAD OCD behaviors - everything in his room had to be PERFECT. The curtains couldn't have a peek of light shining through, there could be nothing on the floor, everything had to be in order. He would obsess about things (creatures) coming into his room, when we would say goodnight and close the door he would scream and cry like someone was stabbing him and was petrified. The FIRST night that we stopped the Singulair he laid his head on his pillow, said goodnight and went to sleep. Please keep an eye out for personality changes in your kids.
*November update* it's been almost two months since we took James off Singulair and we haven't seen ONE BIT of the horrible behavior that we had w/ the Singulair! Normal "three-year-old moments", but no return of the "devil child", no OCD, nighttime freak-outs, violence, or any of it.

could anyone tell me if claritin is the same as singulair or what i could give my child that would help with the allergies/stuffy nose she was on singulair and was taken off

My 4 yr old daughter has been on Singulair for 3 weeks and one day as prescribed by an ENT for her persistent sinus problems. I made the mistake of being too trusting and not reading enough about the medication before giving it to her every night for the last 3 weeks. She has been out of control. I blamed it on her oppositional personality but yesterday at my whits end, sat down at the computer to find some parenting advice to work with her temper, aggression, crying, whining etc. - Not to mention nightmares almost every night. When I made the connection to her behavior changes and when she started taking Singulair i found more info than I could imagine. She will never take this again nor will either of my other children or myself! I can't believe a drug with this severe of side effects is prescribed so freely and without any caution from the docs. I blame my self and hope there are not any long term effects from this useless medication.

My husband started januvia a few months ago, in addition to his lipitor and benazepril and glumetza, which he was already taking for some time. Since starting I have noticed him being tired, irritable (almost angry), and short on patience in general. He has not complained of muscle pain, but has commented about having less hair. When I mention the mood/behavior changes, he tells me I'm wrong, he feels just fine. He won't discuss it with his doctor.
Has anyone else heard of or seen this effect? I have read only one or two comments along this line. It didn't happen all at once, change came over time. Think about it, ask the people you live with.
Thanks, good luck to all

I just started the Singular and it has helped my asthma a lot. I can't tell about the coughing because I also started it while I had a cold. But now and then even before I took singluar I would cough. Sometimes coughs are produced from various types of airborne things, many different types of things. I have a mold aggreviated asthma so that could be why its helping my instead of causing me to go nuts like it does for some. But it doesn't sound like a very good drug for children. It seems as though none of the posts coming from children taken Singular are positive. But so far it's helping me. I made it through the day without grabbing for my inhaler which was a great relief for once.

Has anyone's kids had trouble sleeping since taking Singular. My son has been on it for a couple weeks and seems not to be able to go to sleep very easy. Also it seems to wear off kind of fast, by bedtime he's stuffy and itchy.

My 7 year old son was put on singulair 7 months ago and the behavior changes that have since occurred are incredible. While he has always been temperamental it was never to this degree. The most minor situation can cause an outburst that will continue for 30 minutes or more. Some days the rage and tears are endless. My older son was on singulair for years because of his asthma with no problems. I am so grateful to have found this site and information. I took my son off the singulair 3 days ago and I am hopeful that things will start to improve.

My son is almost 9, he has been on Singulair for 3 years. Last Friday the pulmonologist took him off of it. My son has been sleep walking since about the time he started singulair, have noticed major behavior changes. He gets very angry over nothing, he is extremely sensitive, he is not the happy little boy he once was. He has horrible dreams. Over time this has gotten progressively worse. I have to say that since last Friday when he was taken off the singulair, I have noticed a huge difference. My happy little boy is coming back! I told the Pulmonologist my concerns ans could this be side effects and he replied "YES", Also, he feels that my son has outgrown his asthma which is wonderful. I feel so horrible for all these children and families going through this. Parents, remember you are your child's best advocate. don't let the children suffer.

(A divorced father)
My son has been on Singulair now 5 years and I am in the middle of fighting to get him off. My son is now 7 years old and has been diagnosed with allergies (no test have been done which I find very odd), which leads to a case of mild asthma. This past weekend his mother forgot his Singular on Friday so I could not give him any till the next day, where we met at his soccer game. Saturday night I gave him his usual pill and thankfully due to his exhaustion from playing out side all day he went to sleep in 10 min. vs 3 hrs later which is the norm since Singulair seems to jack him up.
He also has red puffiness under his eyes - most likely allergies.
Seems depressed - just driving down the road and I look at him in the rear view mirror and he just sits and stares into space. When I ask what's wrong he either says nothing or I am tired.
He will try to tell a story or think for himself and just stops mid sentence and says " never mind I am just confused"
He will be having fun one moment and just starts crying or gets depressed.
He was throwing a ball in the house (yes I know) and accidentally knocked a glass over breaking it - he went running to his room, crawled under his bed and sobbed profusely for over 30 min.
He has a hard time doing / focusing on homework - becomes bored very easily.
Does not want to go outside. I will take him to allot of cultural events/ hands on or participation events - he will not try anything. He is unsure and will not come out of his box so to speak.
I spoke with his doctor who was reluctant to take him off, but then agreed that if it was OK with the ex, to take him off for a week to see what happens.
The fun part: My ex is convinced that since he has been on Singulair for 5 years he is fine and does not need to come off it.

1.) Son is diagnosed with mild asthma or allergy induced asthma.
He has never had an allergy test done and has not had a lung function test in over a year.

2.) It is documented that our son has four outbreaks a year. (sounds like the changing of the seasons) but is given Singulair all year round and the dosage has also been increased.

3.) Since the court order, ordered my ex to enroll our son in sports (she would not let him play anything) he does not wheeze or cough uncontrollably.

4.) Since I had to battle to get our son on my insurance I have cut her control issues off a little, but she is refusing to take him off Singular just for a week to see how he reacts. Although I do agree that he should have some form of allergies medicine.

5.) When I found out about the side effects of Singulair, I also found that his doctor was getting ready to add two other allergy medicines to his portfolio - totaling 3 different meds.

I see our sons behavior getting worse and I watch him turn into something he is not and with a controlling individual not believing anything about the side effects it looks like I will have to rely on the medical system to prove my point. I do believe he needs to be accurately tested for allergies and given a regularly lung function test but most of all since he is now on my insurance, a second opinion and a 3rd to narrow down what the situation is and an alternative medical procedure that is fit for the symptoms.

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.

I'm almost positive my son had aggressiveness, irritability, mood changes & behavior changes similar to the S/E's of Singulair
It seems a lot of the allergy meds have these potential S/E's :(

It has been 18 days since my 9 year old daughter has taken Singulair. Our daughter had been taking Singulair for approximately 2 years. It was in the last year that we started to notice some behavior changes and mood swings that were so often unprovoked. We were somewhat concerned and thought like so many other parents that it was a phase. Then in December 2007 she came home from school with a tummy ache and had several episodes of vomiting. She seemed better the following day, but we took her to the pediatrician to be sure that this was a virus. The stomach pains continued, and then anxiety attacks began. Over the next month she began to wake up each day with stomach aches and we began more visits to doctors and more testing. She had abdominal X-rays, CT scan, mekel scan, GI consult and endoscopy. All were ok except she did have some small amounts of acid in her stomach. She was treated with Prevacid with really no significant changes. As weeks passed she missed more and more school, she just could not make it through the day. She had intense separation anxiety, and developed OCD about being sick again and vomiting, fears that she may stop breathing; fear of dying and the list goes on. She was refusing to ride the bus to school, and was having more and more panic attacks that would last for hours. We finally took her to a psychiatrist after we had done every test we could possibly do and all were normal. She woke up with the fear and anxiety, and fell asleep each night the same way. The doctor said she had "OCD" which she believes was triggered by the fear from vomiting. "This was the first time she had vomited since she was an infant.” She was treated with Lexapro, and Klonopin. The symptoms worsened over the next few days even with the new medications. After many calls to the doctor we were finally advised to have her admitted to a children’s psychiatric hospital for closer evaluation where higher doses of medications could be administered. She was there for 4 horrible days with slight improvements. Over the next few weeks the medication did begin to help some and she was able to make it through school each day as long as she was able to call me a few times a day for re-assurance. I thank God each day for her wonderful teacher and staff that have helped us through this. They all have known her for 3 years and knew this was just not her character at all and she was truly struggling. She was always known as "Smiley" to everyone because she always wears a grin. We began therapy with a psychologist as well and she has good and bad days. Then we heard the news about Singulair and I began to trace back other issues she had with focusing in 2nd grade and how things just seemed to progress from there. It all happened so gradually that I would never have put two & two together. She is showing improvements every day with personality, mood, attitude, fears, and the "OCD". She told me today that this was the best day ever!! I have made all the Doctor's involved aware of this information and the progress she has made in the last 2 1/2 weeks. Her doctor did cut her meds in half this week as well. Thanks to everyone that has posted their nightmares as well, and we will pray for you and for full recovery for all those that have suffered.

i am so happy to hear all of these stories of recovery. i discovered my son's singulair side effects in march 2007, after 3 years of use. i can tell you from our experience that the most significant recovery comes within 3 weeks. after the 3 weeks, the more subtle improvements continued to occur for months and months after. without the effects of singulair, they experience life in a whole new way. my son's experiened 3 years of undetected side effects which included: irritability, FEAR, stomach / leg pains, poor appetite, difficulty with focusing / comprehension, restlessness and nightmares. the last 2 months on the 5mg dosage, he also experienced a facial tic, dilated pupils and hallucinations along with an increased in intensity of all the above. i thank god everyday for finding this website and removing my child from singulair.

Follow up to my post earlier today...

I took the my son to the doctor this morning and he was somewhat dismissive of the recent reports on Singulair...says he's had a lot of kids on the drug and never heard a peep about side effects until last week when the report on suicidal tendencies showed up. He did advise that when these kinds of behavior changes happen after a new drug is started he would recommend that we stop taking the drug no matter what it was, but I still felt uncomfortable with his response to us.

I felt like he was accusing me of making it up or only coming up with it because of recent news and message board posts. In fact, I made the appointment BEFORE I saw the posts. I was worried about his behavior BEFORE I saw the posts. It's just that seeing the stories from everyone else basically confirmed my suspicions that it might be the drug causing the problems.

I feel like I definitely wasted OVER AN HOUR waiting for a doctor to spend five minutes making me feel small.

Last night was the last time my son will take the drug, and I don't care what the doctors think of me.

I have an 8 year daughter who has been on singular since the age of 4. I began to notice behavior changes, but contributed it to me being a single mom, and her aneixty about school. She became very germ a phobic and these behaviors became worse when she began displaying aggression towards me and her grandmother, not wanting to go to school, inability to focus and very "worried" about getting sick and dying. She is now in the 3rd grade and was diagnosed w/ aneixty disorder and ADHD and is taking two different meds for this. It does take much to get her upset and she often describes herself as a horrible person, and she "hates" her life. This was a very happy infant, and easy going child. Now it is a struggle everyday to keep everything "under control" and her stable. I wonder. Many of the stories that i have just read are so similar to mind and I know how difficult it is. I did not give my daughter her singular as she has mild allergy induced asthma and I will be consulting my Pediatrician ASAP, to find other options.

My 8 year old daughter has been taking Singulair for 4 years. She immediately began having sleeping problems. I never connected it to Singulair. When she was 5, she had a check-up with her Asthma/Allergy doctor. I received a new prescription and had it filled at Costco. She became more irritable and the sleeping problems persisted. After I had the second refill and had the information sheet Costco had given me, I decided to read the about side effects. That was when I realized she was taking the 10mg dose for ages 15 and up at 5 years old. I knew she was taking a different dose but it was new script because she had been at the doctors and I thought the doctor had just increased the dosage. I called Costco and had them check the original prescription and sure enough they had entered it wrong in their system and was given an OVERDOSE. They did pay for any tests for Physical damage (blood work and liver), and gave me free pills that were dispensed incorrectly. I assumed everything was ok now that she was back on the 5mg. dose again. She has still continued to have sleeping issues and her aggressive behavior has gotten worse. She has consistently had stomach problems, daily! A month ago I had an evaluation done for academic purposes, When the Psychologist was done he was saying she was a sweet girl. I proceeded to tell him about her violent outbursts. Just that morning her brother, 6yrs.old, was walking by her and out of the blue she took the pencil in her hand and slashed across his chest. I told him these were typical of the behavior at home and I had tried all type of discipline to no avail. HE WAS SHOCKED. He said that wasn't her personality at all. After talking to him a second time, He said it was probably a combination of her age, hormones starting to kick in and sibling rivalry! I knew it was more than that but still never connected it to Singulair! Well, as of today she is off the Singulair. I can't wait to see if her behavior changes. I see these posting go all the way back to 2003! If only I had thought to look online first!

My six year old has been taking singulair for 2 years now and after hearing about this side affect it explains a lot about why she acts the way she does. I agree with all of you, I will no longer subject my child to this medication. I will be speaking to her doctor first thing in the morning because in addition to the behavior changes she has been complaining about a stomach ache off and on for the last two months and not one time did her doctor think it was the Singulair causing the problems.

I posted yesterday on my experience with Yasmin. This is my update. Today I called and left a message for my GYN, I explained to her that the Yasmin was causing me to have horrible headaches, I was weak all the time, and having horrible mood swings and anger outbursts. On my file it states that I suffer from anxiety and depression, which has been being treated by my primary physician successfully for 6 years now. In my message I asked her to please find me a new pill, I am on Yasmin so I can start having regular periods again. She had her nurse call me back, and explain to me that she will not switch me to a new pill, and suggested that I go and get a psychiatric evaluation, that I needed to see a psychiatrist. There was noway Yasmin or Yaz is associated with these behaviors I have described, it is the drug of choice for women who suffer from horrible PMS. I said I beg to differ, I researched the side effects myself on their site, and joined a forum to hear from other women. They were still adamant about Yasmin not causing behavior changes. In the meantime, I had also put a call in my Primary Care, with the same symptoms I told my GYN. The call back from them was different, they stated that there have been a number of women who have complained of all the symptoms I have been having, and my GYN needs to do her research, and she advised me to stop taking he pill immediately and I might want to consider finding a new GYN. So go figure. I usually take the Yasmin at 11:30 each night, and I skipped it today, well it is now 2 a.m. and I must say I am feeling a bit better. I am so glad I found this site...

Folks seriously this drug is bad news. Yes it worked great for my son's asthma. We thought it was a wonder drug. Then things changed. My son had horrible side effects to this also. It took us 5 months to link it to the meds. I realized after reading this website and all the blogs from other parents. My son is 4 years old and had the following symptoms: Weight loss, poor appetite, muscle and joint pain, headaches, unexplained fevers, complained of seeing colors, blue under the eyes, severe stomach cramps and horrible horrible thoughts no 4 year old should ever experience in their mind. I did not even know who my child was that is how scary it was. This is such a dangerous drug. I have talked to several other parents who this has happened too including having seizures out of the blue with no history. I work in the medical field and it seems only a few docs are recognizing this. I have seen this in other kids. This drug may be great for others and yes there are side effects to every medication. However I do not think all these children are having the same side effects. Do you?? SERIOUSLY TAKE YOUR KIDS OFF THIS TERRIBLE DRUG, REPORT IT TO THE FDA!!!

My son was changed from Adderall to Concerta. He started having a lot of side effects on 18mg. I told the doctor and he doubled the dose to 36mg. In three days, he went totally out of control. In the following 4 days, we had 3 emergency room visits, two hospitals and two ambulance rides. Now I am facing lots of bills and no help from the doctor. My son's side effects were weight loss, loss of appetite, mervousness, fast heartbeat, unusual sadness, irritability, dilated pupils, hallucinations, twitching, temors, throwing up, yelling at me, nose bleeds, behavior changes, and dizziness. He now is off all ADHA medications. Please read what the side effects are and stop the medication if they show up.