Brain tissue symptoms and conditions

I have been on Topamax for four years. 25 mg in the am and 25 mg in the pm. I have experienced the weight loss and the migraines have completely gone away along with my wittiness and ability to remember why I am in the bathroom with my pants around my ankles. I have passed up my exit on the highway on my way home several times.... not really sure why or where I think I was going........ I have found myself on a freeway and had to search the signs to figure out which direction I was traveling and then realized I was going to moms.........don't even remember getting in the car but have stuff with me that I was bringing her. I have woken up in the middle of the night in a panic and always have the word right on the tip of my tongue. I feel like I have alzheimers. I am 34. I started out having severe ocular migraines when I was 17 (I don't have head pain) and ended them at 30 after spending weeks in bed, days in ERs and hours heaving into the toilet........ hours, straight, not even able to take a complete breath. I wouldn't even have the strength to hold my head up anymore and I would just lay on my side an heave in my bed, until I would pass out. The MRI showed brain damage and necrosis (dead brain tissue) of my brain from my migraines. I was originally diagnosed with strokes. Imitrex would raise my blood pressure so high the MD's and RNs would hold me out of fear I was going to stroke out. My life just stopped..... I couldn't even move.... ever, I couldn't look out a window, listen to a radio, watch T.V, have a conversation, smell food, perfume......... anything without getting sick. Topamax stopped it all. And yes, I got stupid with the meds....... I lost my train of thought, but I can go outside. I lost some weight, but I can eat, I have lost some, hair but I can work...............I feel like I have more of a life now than I did before. Anytime you introduce a drug to your body you are going to have effects........there are trade offs. If you had what I had, you will be willing to have the trade off. I had gotten to the point that I would have been better off dead, because I wasn't living. My migraines started off manageable and progressively got worse over time. I have to admit, I have tried to come off of the medication... who wants to be tethered to meds all of there life? But when the migraines came back, I quickly went back on the meds.....Drink plenty of water, stay off other stimulants, don't smoke!!!! titrate your doses and then don't miss them.

Is there a potential explanation for the adverse psychiatric side effects of montelukast?

In my opinion, there are at least some very good clues based upon the work of the Chinese researchers.

A 2006 report indicated that they had localized (meaning found it was there) the CystLT1 receptor (same as the receptor that montelukast
Singulair blocks) in the neurons of the brain tissue of rats. In order to do that, they injected rat brain's with NMDA to cause a chemically induced state of excitotoxicity. Excitotoxicity is a common factor in Central Nervous System disease. They concluded that both 5-LOX and CystLT1 were upregulated by the excitotoxicity that they artificially created
with the NMDA. Therefore, there would be a potential link between neuron activity and CystLT1. Nerve cells are damaged by excitotoxicity. These researchers used NMDA to cause nerve damage which caused the CystLT1 to show up. NMDA was often used in human behavior studies to cause brain damage. They would then try to observe whether behavior was compromised to conclude what areas of the brain determined what behavioral response.

So I was thinking about the Chinese researchers as I was reading other posts. One post interested me particularly regarding the mother who described behavior that seemed like hypoglycemics when their snack doesn't arrive on time. So a light bulb went on. Glutamate, another excitotoxin, can build up in the brain to a level that is damaging if humans become excessively hypoglycemic. If glutamate concentration around the synaptic cleft reaches too high a level then neurons die. Clinically, it really does seem that many people experience things that sound like the effects of hypoglycemia. It could be only a coincidence. But then again, maybe not.

The Chinese researchers found the CystLT1 receptor in the rat brain neuron after brain damage. They found the CystLT1 receptor in the normal human brain in the microvascular endothelial cells and in neuron and glial-appearing cells in brain trauma or tumors.

What role does the CystLT1 play in brain function? If it exists in brain tissue, we can assume that it does have a function. If it plays a role in preventing or repairing neuron damage due to excitotoxins, then there would be a very direct link between Singulair and adverse psychiatric side effects.

http://www.chinaphar.com/1671-4083/27/1526.htm

The bottom line is that Merck owes people who take Singulair further research regarding it's effect on the brain.