Behaviours symptoms and conditions

My husband has been on Singulair for ten years now. It was a miracle drug for us as his asthma and allergies were ruining his quality of life. Little did I know that the Singulair would have such drastic effects as well. He is a police officer who has been through some traumatic events in his career. I attributed his irritability, depression, anger, severe nightmares, heartburn, weight gain, and puffy swollen eyes to post traumatic stress disorder. He stopped taking the medication about two weeks ago after his prescription ran out and he saw the FDA report. He is once again the man I fell in love with. Now I know what has been causing all of the changes in him, and we have decided he will never take Singulair again.

I take Klonopin and Celexa and my mood and feeling are better than I remember before I started them. There are many other positive outcomes we have notices. I used to have many addictive behaviors and many of them have ceased. Now for the issues: I fall asleep every time I sit down. I have had arthritis since I was a young teen, so I do need to sit down for breaks anyway. I used to fall asleep from time to time, but now it is everyday. If I am in a meeting I nod off and start snoring. I was not able to work while depressed and anxious with panic attacks. I feel better, but I still am unable to work. I plan to stay on Klonopin as any other of the drugs would probably only be worse. When I was on Ativan about 17 years ago while I was in the hospital it only took me 5 - 15 minutes to fall asleep for at least 8 hours. I have friends that can drive long distances on these drugs, so it is not like this for everyone thank God!

My 4 year old daughter has been on Singulair daily for approximately 2 months. We started noticing some minor changes in her behavior early on (shyness, separation anxiety, anger, moodiness) but chalked it up to starting a new pre-school and arguing with her older sister. Then about two weeks ago, she started having an obsessive-compulsive type behavior about wiping herself. My first inclination was that she had some type of infection (yeast, UTI, bladder, etc) but all of the tests came back negative. My doctor told us to stop the Singulair, so we have been off for about a week now, but the OCD symptoms haven't lessened. I would say that some of the other behaviors are improving somewhat, but I am not seeing a "whole new kid" effect after being off for one week. Has anyone had a similar experience with OCD type behaviors? I am beside myself with concern! Thanks for any help.

I am so glad that I looked at this site I was prescribed Biaxin XL for Bronchitis and only took it two days when I started experiencing stomache cramps, restlessness, and profuse sweating. I too had no interest in food and got really down in the dumps attitude wise. I have never had any reaction to any medication and so when I called my doctor after seeing this online he said that it was highly unlikley that it was the Biaxin causing this side effect and that he assumed my Bronchitis was just getting worse-I DO NOT THINK SO!!! I am now on a Z-Pack and am feeling much better but will now write this med down in all my medical documents that I am highly allergic to it since my own doctor didn't beleive that I could have those side effects. Thanks to everyone who posted.

My son is now 6 and was on Singulair for 4 1/2 yrs, since age 18 months. After finding this site I immediately took him off of this medication 6 months ago. He was having so many of the effects listed. Everything from easily upset stomach to "leg heaviness/discomfort", aggression, ADHD type symptoms, frequent skin rashes, telling me he only had bad dreams and not good ones, tantrums. We have also been unable to completely toilet train him. He still wets his pants during the day frequently unless reminded constantly. I have seen some mention of this on the site. All of the other symptoms and behaviours I just thought were normal "boy" things until he started Kindergarten and it was brought to our attention by teachers they were not. When I read this site I realized that nearly every entry seemed to describe my son.
We saw a decrease in aggression and a "settling down" almost immediately after discontinuing Singulair & bathroom accidents decreased & leg/stomach complaints ceased, but still having the bathroom problems w/physical causes ruled out. I am afraid that, after so long on this Medication, the remaining problems we have may be ingrained and habit now. We are still struggling w/school behaviours, etc. After about 6 school conferences w/teacher and principal, etc in Kindergarten we are also checking for ADHD. It scares me to realize that all of this could have been triggered by this medication and I have no way of knowing if the problems will continue. Has anyone else had their child on this med so young for this length of time and had the above problems? If so, how long did it take to resolve the problems after discontinuing the medication (or has it resolved)? I am still seeing improvement since discontinuing the medication but it seems very slow. All of the information on this site makes me wonder how many of the kids out there on meds for ADHD take or have taken Singulair.

For the desperate boyfriend.....

Something similiar happened in my relationship when I was taking ortho tricyclen. I had a great boyfriend, but about a month into the pill I became very discontented with my relationship. So much so, I broke up with my boyfriend. After the breakup I stayed on the pill and I started having anxiety attacks about events that happened years earlier, and I started developing some obsessive behaviours. I stopped the pill, but not because of the side effects. You see, I wasn't aware that there was any. Those feelings I had about my relationship were very real to me at the time, and It's only in hindsight do I realize that those negative feelings were hormone induced. I got into another relationship and I decided that I was going to try a new pill, Ortho cyclen. Well, the same thing started happening! I became very discontented, and anxious - but this time I put it together and realized what was causing it, and stopped. Now I'm on Yasmin, and things are great. I'm back with the original guy that I broke up with - who incidentally is a saint for putting up with me.

These feelings your girlfriend has are very, very real to her. They may be justified, or they may be hormonal - There's no way to know. I just noticed similarities in our situations, and I thought you might like to know a different point of view.

i started on 25mg/day for first week. worst side effect was severe jaw tension which caused headaches and insomnia, also slight nausea and weird skin sensations (very much like coming down from acid/e). went up to 50mg for month or so, then 75mg, now on 100mg - this seems to be the right dose for me at the moment. planning to go back to 50mg in about a year. side effects seem to last for a week after changing dose. but the very first week was worst. i noticed benefits after about two weeks. i was really worried that i would feel zombied and have no libido - not the case at all. thats what i was like before cause i was so depressed. very glad i started on small dose, and changed gradually, i can imagine doing otherwise would suck big time. my most important message - ZOLOFT IS ONLY PART OF MY TREATMENT. my doctor helped to develop a treatment plan which involves yoga, affirmations, identifying negative thoughts and behaviours and changing them, seeking help from other sources (university counsellor), eating well, maintaining more regular sleeping patterns, getting out in sunlight and fresh air etc. if your doctor won't help you with this, or doesn't care about your side effects, or whether you're on the right dose - FIND ANOTHER DOCTOR!! there are also good websites like depressionnet, beyondblue and anu.edu.au/moodgym