Bremner symptoms and conditions

I have communicated directly with Leslie Hendeles, a leading professor of pharmacology and pediatrics at the University of Florida who's direct quote to me was:
"In response to your last comment, I thing Singulair has modest efficacy, and if we take all of our patients off this drug, THEY WON'T SUFFER. This is NOT an important drug for pediatric asthma, as are inhaled corticosteroids."

Ironically, this is the same individual who was quoted in an ABC news article as saying:
"We have hundreds of children on Singulair and have never heard parents make complaints about psychiatric side effects. Moreover, there is no mechanism for this reaction … We will be telling our patients not to worry about this."

WAKE UP EVERYONE...THIS IS AN ADMITTEDLY OVERPRESECRIBED DRUG THAT HAS WORKED WELL FOR MANY, BUT HAS ALSO RUINED MANY LIVES.

The manner in which this drug is casually overprescribed by so many doctors is freakish. I firmly believe that this drug has caused countless misdiagnoses such as ADHD, Bipolar disorder and others. IT FUELS A GOOD PART OF THE ECONOMY TO PUT SO MANY PEOPLE ON THESE DRUGS. I BELIEVE THE PHARM INDUSTRY IS VERY CALCULATED IN THIS MANNER.

Question what your doctors tell you.
See my other posts under matthewct1. I dealt with a situation where my 5 yr. old son was on the road to being diagnosed with ADHD which couldn't have been further from the truth. Singulair changed him. Since he's been off Singulair everyone (teachers, pediatrician, family, etc.) unanimously agree that he does not show the ADHD symptoms like he did on Singulair.

Alright. After observing my daughter for two full weeks after discontinuing Singulair, I have decided to share our story.

Our daughter started taking Singulair last August (2007) to relieve her allergy symptoms. I'd like to add she is an identical twin, whose sister did not need to take the medication, for she had mild allergy symptoms that were easily relieved by taking Allegra. So we clearly have a side-by-side case study where one twin took the Singulair and the other did not. About two weeks later we noticed changes in her behavior and thought it was due to the new school routine and changes, etc. Then she started not eating, and when she did eat, she ate very little. Both girls are in a select soccer league are physically active 4-5 times a week.

Long story short - she stopped eating, lost weight, stopped growing and is now 2.5 inches shorter and 15 lbs. lighter than her identical twin. They are fifth graders, I might add, so 15 lbs is ALOT of weight at their age. She was withdrawn, known to have deep depressive episodes, reacted adversely to everything and, in general, wasn't acting herself since last August. She was not enjoying life at all.

She is usually a quick-witted child, one with a sunny disposition and who interacts with others very well. She is joy packaged in a colorful bottle, ready to share her thoughts with you.

We took her to her pediatrician, a nutritionist, a psychologist and all said she was clearly depressed and that is what led to her changes in eating. No kidding, I thought. But why? What has happened that could have changed her so drastically?

I had never felt so far away from my child as I had with her during this time period. We are a close family and we pride ourselves on being able to freely express how we feel.

My dear mother-in-law saw that the FDA was probing the side-effects of Singulair with children and she mentioned it to me, because she knew that is what my daughter was taking was taking. I never thought about the connection, because I take Singulair. I will add I also take an antidepressant and have made an appointment with my doctor to discuss all of this.

After talking with our pharmacist and getting an exact date as to when she started taking it, I called her pediatrician and discussed it with him. We had not been to him since October, because we took her to everyone else (psychologist, etc), so he had not known exactly what was going on with her mental health. He did, however write in his notes (and told me when I called), "Discontinue Singulair if symptoms persist." Hmmmm. Exactly why I wasn't told this from the beginning, I don't know and am very bothered knowing he wrote that on her chart.

Well, after taking her off it two weeks ago she is now back to her happy, connecting and eating self. People (her father, twin, and I included) noticed a change in three days from stopping use of Singulair.

She has changed IMMENSELY since getting off the Singulair that it has been easy to pinpoint her taking that medication as the reason she has been absolutely miserable for the past SEVEN MONTHS. I thank God it wasn't longer and that she didn't suffer any longer than she already did, but it was a true hell to watch her go through what she did and to watch her decline and to not know (professionals included) what to do. Words diminish how we felt and how we feel now after having her back.

So there you have a side-by-side comparison. One identical twin thrived while NOT taking Singulair and the twin who did take it suffered terribly, physically and mentally, while she was taking it.

The allergy relief she experienced was clearly not worth the internal suffering she endured while taking Singulair. I wish we could turn back time and give her those seven months back.

Just wanted to say thanks to "concerned citizen" for all the efforts you've put into finding us "real reports" on the "ADVERSE EFFECTS OF SINGULAIR ON OUR CHILDREN" that confirms what we all really knew in our gut! The sad thing is that if you've all noticed they are coming out of every country but the good USA!

A thanks also to Dr. Beemer for going on record in his latest post of today also confirming the dangers of this drug on our children.

I would everyone who's posted and keeps coming back (I can't stop myself) to encourage others to get their Dr.s to this site and to beg them to at least read the posts since April 1st! If they are at all human, they will be touched by these stories and think twice about prescribing this to children and spare the children and families all this pain!

I feel so happy when I see all the parents after reading our posts who have trusted us and at least tried to take their kids of of this to see if they see the change we know will take place! Let's keep on encouraging so we can continue to get the wonderful"UPDATES" that still make me tear up!

Here is Dr. Bremner's new post on his blog about Singulair.

http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/blog.html

Thank you Dr. Bremner. He must have to pay for that blogsite himself because I didn't see any pop up ads especially none for pills.

I read these posts and regarding my being quoted as saying that it is unclear whether there are leukotriene receptors in the brain, that isn't true, there are leukotriene receptors in the brain and the relationship between neural systems involved in inflammation and mood is well established. I don't think the misquote was deliberate, I wasnt that definitive when I commented to the reporter on the 'breaking' story (she called me because I had just blogged about it and I updated the blog after I got off the phone). There are a number of parallels with other drugs used to treat medical conditions that have been associated with psychiatric side effects, you can follow the links from the March 27 post "If they dont kill us they will drive us crazy" at
http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/blog.html

Doug Bremner MD

I just want to tell you another thing.

There are leukotriene receptors in the brain" That is the real quote from Dr. Bremner.

When I read that he said "unclear", I said, what?, are these Chinese researchers that have been saying since 2002 or maybe before just "cuckoo"?
So the media deliberately misquoted.

I am so pissed. Never trust what you read in the news. I read an article where Dr. Bremner said that it is unclear whether leukotriene receptors exist in the brain. WELL, all researchers know about that word unclear--it has many meanings. It appears in abstracts practically as a BUZZWORD. When I first heard about Singulair and these problems I wanted to know if the leukotriene receptors existed in the brain. Well, lo and beyond, I found researchers who said that they did. Look at the date on this link where Dr. Bremner says that leukotriene receptors exist and look at the date of the article where Dr. Bremner is quoted as saying unclear. WHAT FREAKIN BS. Dr. Bremner says on his website that they exist. Who controls what the media writes? You tell me?

http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/blog.html