Clarinex symptoms and conditions

I am a part-time professional singer and attorney. I developed an odd cough-variant asthma this winter at age 42 -- it had scary breath shortness and wheezing plus lots of phlegm coughed up. I had never before had the shortness/wheezing/asthma, though I have always had allergies and occasional bronchitis following a cold. The asthma/allergy specialists put me on Advair 500 twice a day with each attack, plus an oral prednisone burst/short taper, nebulized (not just rescue inhaler) albuterol (beta 2 agonist), and antibiotics (a different one each time). I also take Claritin, Rhinocort and Astelin for my allergies. I had four attacks of asthma this winter that were treated this way; after the fourth, they put me on Advair 250 maintenance for a month. With each attack, I would get hoarse, have trouble sleeping, and get odd muscle cramps I never had had. The hoarseness was worse each time, but I was able to sing through it at my regular gigs. I attributed the side effects to the prednisone. With my fifth attack, they told me to ramp up the Advair to 500 and do all else the same, but as an experiment to see how this would alter those side effects, I decided to treat it with everything but the prednisone. The hoarseness, sleep trouble, and muscle cramps were all much worse. I found this site, noted the recommendation of several other singers to try Asmanex instead of Advair, and asked the docs about it. They agreed that all these symptoms could be related to the Advair and gave me Asmanex 250 twice/day instead instead of the Advair, plus all the other meds for the attack. The symptoms went away within a week, although it took a little longer for me to get over the asthma attack this time. I am extremely grateful to this site and all the users posting comments. I can sing again, sleep again, and exist without weird muscle cramps during treatment of my asthma. Thank you very much.

TOOK IF FOR 10 DAYS...ON DAY 7, NOTICED MY RIGHT NECK WAS PUFFY AND SORE (ONE OF THE SIDE EFFECTS) AND ON DAY TEN, I HAD RED SPOTS ALL OVER MY BODY, FACE WAS FLUSHED...HOWEVER, WAS NOT ITCHY. DOCTOR DIDN'T BELIEVE IT WAS AN ALLERGIC RXN BECAUSE IT DID NOT ITCH. THE PHARMACISTS I WENT TO SAID THEY SEE IT ALL THE TIME AND IT DOES NOT NEED TO ITCH TO BE CONSIDERED AN ALLERGIC RXN. THE DR PRESCRIBED CLARINEX FOR THE SPOTS.

My son was on a cocktail of Singulair, Zyrtec, Astellin and Nasonex. Like a miracle, his severe allergies cleared up almost immediately. Months later, behavioral changes started to surface. Extreme irritability, major meltdowns over nothing, problems in school and pulling out his facial hair including eyelashes and eyebrows. We stopped the medication in April and he improved. By mid summer, the hair pulling stopped. When his allergies started up again about 10 days ago, I put him back on the Zyrtec, because I was certain the Singulair was causing most of the problems. Within 3-4 days, the emotional outbursts started, panic attacks that never happened before - he said he couldn't breathe. Now the hair pulling is back. Everyone thinks I want to blame medication for his problems, but I am certain that Zyrtec has something to do with these problems in addition to Singulair. We have taken him off Zyrtec 2 days ago. We have a dr. appointment in 2 days and we will discuss all of this with him. In the meantime, his allergies are back and he is miserable. I would rather him be physically sick than mentally at this point.

I have been on Zyrtec for three years (Every day) haven't noticed mood swings in myself? My mother also takes them every other day and is not particularly moody. Although she has trouble sleeping which she attributes to the menopause But if i don't take one within 24hrs I get very itchy and hive up..now that I'm breastfeeding I've just noticed my daughter is very irritable..and am beginning to think it's related to the zyrtec. I'm changing to claratyne in the morning to see if there's a change..very,very interesting and scary reading all the side-effects!!

My 13 yr old daughter was put on Singulair along with Asmanex and Clarinex for her asthma about 6 weeks ago. Everything seemed to be going very well at first and her symptoms were starting to get controlled. I started noticing after about 3 to 4 weeks that her temper and attitude were getting much worse. Anyone with children this age knows what I mean but this was like a 180 degree turn for her. Her actions were becoming totally out of character. Before I knew it she would cry and get highly upset over the least little thing. Week 5 came around and things totally bottomed out. She came home from school and WAS NOT HERSELF. Made comments about how she hated her life and it was not worth living. Later that evening we had a big argument because I was telling her nothing was worth saying that. She went totally out of control and I had to physically restrain her to calm her down. It appeared everything was better so she went to her room. I went down to check on her and she calmly told me that she had taken advil and tylenol pm and things would be better for her forever now. We went to the ER where they made us wait for at least an hour, then finally took her back. She had to drink two cups of charcoal and was poked and prodded repeatedly. They did a catheter to get a urine sample. She was very cooperative but also was in a complete daze so who knows. The poor child couldn't even lift her head up when she started the vomiting to get rid of the drugs. It was very upsetting and sad. Her heart rate and blood pressure went very low and I really thought in the back of my mind that this was it. Finally, after several hours she started coming out of it and they sent us home. The next evening when she was starting to really come around she proceeded to tell me how she had been seeing a man walking around in her bedroom at night and she was afraid to go down there. Breaking down and crying telling me about all of the horrible nightmares she had been having recently and didn't know why. I thought what am I dealing with here? This just isn't her. Three days ago I heard about singulair in the news and looked it up on the internet. OH MY GOD THIS SOUNDED LIKE US!!!!! I immediately had her stop taking it and the next day phoned her asthma specialist who agreed she should stop now. We are going to watch her for two weeks and see if any symptoms return and then decide if she needs something else or will be fine on just the Asmanex. As a side note, she also mentioned being unable to concentrate in school (unable to do even the simplest math problems) and that her brain felt confused or like something was missing. She said this had been bothering her for several weeks. I know it was this drug. They really need to take this off the market NOW and stop flirting with disaster. The only reason I posted this was to let others know they are not alone.

Unfortunately my lawyer told me that they do not want to take our case because of the lack of evidence that Singulair has caused our daughters problems. :(

Does anyone out there have a pending class action lawsuit that We may be able to get in on? I have tons of proof that Singulair has caused our daughters problems and loss of almost 5 years of her elementary school career!

My phone number is *** and my email is ****** if You email me please put "Singulair" in Your subject line so I know it pertains to this posting.

Thank You in advance,
Chuck & Brenda
Jamestown New York

Effective after two weeks for some people - not effective for others. Side effects for some people - others do not report side effects. So why does Merck have to grow their market before they have any idea what's going on?

This isn't a big group of people in the study but it makes sense from what we are reading here. These researchers did examine the mast cells. We need to know about mast cells (while suppressed by montelukast) on a longer term basis.

J Asthma. 2008 Apr;45(3):243-50. Links
The efficacy of montelukast and airway mast cell profiles in patients with cough variant asthma.Kawai S, Baba K, Matsubara A, Shiono H, Okada T, Yamaguchi E.
Division of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Department of Internal Medicine, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Aichi, Japan.

Background. Cough variant asthma (CVA) is characterized by chronic cough without apparent wheezing; its pathophysiology is considered to be similar to that of classic asthma. Objective. The clinical effects of montelukast, a cysteinyl-leukotriene receptor antagonist, on cough variant asthma were assessed, and the activation profile of airway mast cells was examined. Methods. Montelukast (10 mg/day) was given orally to 36 CVA patients (25 women and 11 men; median age, 37.5 years). Before treatment, the patients' bronchial mucosa underwent a biopsy with a fiberoptic bronchoscope. The biopsy specimens were double stained with anti-CD63 antibody and anti-human tryptase antibody. Results. After 2 weeks of montelukast treatment, cough symptoms improved in 22 patients (the effective group) but did not improve in 14 patients (the ineffective group); in the ineffective group, the symptoms disappeared 2 weeks after they were switched to fluticasone propionate (400 mug/day) inhalation therapy. In the effective group, the time interval from the onset of symptoms to the initiation of treatment was significantly shorter than in the ineffective group. The bronchial mucosa biopsy specimens showed that the proportion of CD63-positive cells in tryptase-positive mast cells was significantly higher in the effective group than in the ineffective group; although the total numbers of mast cells were not different between the two groups. Conclusion. There is a subgroup of CVA patients in whom leukotrienes are closely involved in the pathogenesis of their chronic cough; activation of airway mast cells may be an essential feature in these patients.

PMID: 18415834

My son is 8 and has been on Singulair for 4+ years. When he was as young as 5 he said he should just throw himself off of our staircase and in first grade, age 7, he told a friend he wanted to kill himself with a knife or scissors. I have taken him to psychiatrists, psychologists, pediatricians and guidance counselors and none have linked it to Singulair. I spoke with our allergist and he said to take him off of it. He said their office was not notified when Merck changed the side effects last year. Obviously the fat cats at Merck are enjoying their big bucks with little regard for the people taking their drugs, look at the new evidence about Vytorin-it does not work yet they have made millions on it. They knew it did not work 2 years ago. I am so happy that I now know this drug is dangerous. We will stick with our Nasacort, Clarinex and allergy shots, which are helping tremendously. I am planning on getting off of Singulair for my asthma as well. It is not worth it. There are too many reliable drugs out there to waste my money on the suicide drug! I am on Asmanex and may add or change to symbicort. I am so sorry some have already committed suicide because of this drug.

My six year old son has been taking Singulair for almost three years for asthma and allergies. We have had such a hard time with him and it all started around the time he was prescribed this drug. He became very irritable, angry, hard to satisfy and generally unhappy. Now that he is six, the last two years have been the absolute worst with him saying he hates himself and just wants to die. He has stomach pain all the time and has had alternating daily diarrhea for over a year. Our pediatrician has done all sorts of tests and has referred us to a specialist. He has bad dreams every night and also complains of leg pain. He has been so depressed lately that he does not even want to go out and play after school and on weekends (not like him at all) and the teacher calls me several times a week to pick him up early because of stomach pain. I am so upset to think all this has been caused by this drug and he has suffered because of it! He also takes Zyrtec, as do all three of my sons, but the older two do not have asthma, just allergies. I gave him his last dose night before last because I just found out about the Singulair investigation. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

I have a 3 year old son that was diagnosed back in December with allergies and was prescribed Zyrtec and Singulair, after taking them for a while we noticed that he became very belligerent so we called the Allergist and they took him off the Singulair and put him on Clarinex. We weren't real good at giving him the medications very regularly, but recently I've gotten better and he's becoming very belligerent again. I was wondering if anyone has had any problems with moodiness with either Clarinex or Zyrtec, I know the problems with Singulair and am very thankful that he is off that med, but now I'm concerned about the others...

I have posted in the past but just thought I would update on my 9 yr old daughter condition. She has been off of singulair for the last 2 weeks and her behavior is so much better. She isn't sad anymore and doesn't talk about death like before..She still dealing with some issues and is seeing a counselor for her depression . Which he says she seems to be doing better. She is no longer taking Singulair or Zyrtec but just Flovent and Clarinex. Her asthma is under control and her allergies too.I am just happy I came across this website. Had I not researched I don't know what would of been of my daughter .I am NEVER giving my children Singulair or Zyrtec AGAIN!! I almost started my 13 month old on them!

Hi all,
I've been taking it for a month now and for the last 2 weeks I,ve been having nightmares every single night, severe musle pain in my legs, my arms feel weak and shaky, my mouth and nose are extremely dry. I have itchy skin - the itchiness attacks are so bad - I can't control them, and also I have very strange headaches -at the back of my head and neck - not just a muscle tension, migrating all over the scalp.
I don't have an asthma, but I had a very bad sinus and ear infection, and was feeling dizzy, so my doctor advised me to give it a try. Singulair has eliminated those symptoms in 2 days, but the side effects are even worser.

Im 36 , my pneumologo put me on a treatment for 30 days Zyrtec D and Singular on day 6 w quit Zyrtec provoque me and arrithmia, the 3 days later quit Singulair, sence of more dryness and irregular arrithmia. Go to the original I was before just Clarinex and I felt very bad take a spray shot of Beconase

I love stahist. I have had no problems other than the cost. I wish there was a generic. Nothing else clears up my symptoms (runny nose, tickle throat, sneezing, stuffiness, etc) not clarinex, allegraD, nor zyrtec. this med is great and I'd recommend it to anyone.

I love stahist. I have had no problems other than the cost. I wish there was a generic. Nothing else clears up my symptoms (runny nose, tickle throat, sneezing, stuffiness, etc) not clarinex, allegraD, nor zyrtec. this med is great and I'd recommend it to anyone.

My son started taking singulair in 1999 when he was 12. He was also taking Flonase, Flovent, and Claritin. Currently he is taking Singulair and Clarinex only. He takes these medications year round for asthma and allergy problems. Over the past few years we have gone through an emotional hell that is difficult to describe. Let's just say he has been through counseling and is currently in anger management. I thought that these were life related things.... but he says it isn't and that life isn't bad. He can't name anything he is angry about. Basically, he's a kind, gentle and happy guy. Now he is experiencing blackouts when he is awake. Sounds strange doesn't it. He can't sleep during the night, hears people talking (not to him), sees things that aren't really there but only for a second, and has asked me to get him some help because he feels like he is going crazy. He scares himself. He is 19. I made an appt with a neurologist but the end of February is the soonest we can get in. I would tell him to stop taking it now but just missing one day produces major panic attacks... in a physical sense. I urge parents to try other avenues before singulair, then monitor it closely. It is a dopamine agonist and messing with the receptors or storage modes of dopamine does not appear to be a good idea.

Hi,
I am a 28 year old male diagnosed with "accute sinusitis" and "seasonal" allergies. My ENT put me on Singulair after numerous attempts at other drugs, including, Allegra D, Allegra 180, Clarinex, and Zyrtec. I have mild nerves and anxiety as it is but since I have been on Singulair, I have been fatigued, weak, nautious, no appetite, depressed, more anxious, more nervous , tingling in my face and skin and tightness in my chest. I am freaking out thinking I am dying of stomach cancer or heart disease and I can barely function. These symptoms/side effects started 4 days after starting Singulair. Someone out there please tell me I am normal and that if I stop taking this I will feel better because I cannot go on like this much longer. It is helping my allergies and my ears but I'd rather live with stuffy ears and nose compared to the side effects.

I am 37 and I took Singulair and Advair for approx. three months for Allergy induced Asthma. Things were great for about one month and then yes, weight gain and vivid dreams. The worst side effect I have is itchy hives that I break out in several times a day. I have stoped taking everything for about a week not and I am still having this rash. I take Benedryl and clarinex and these hives are still here. How long does it take for this stuff to get out of your system????

I was put on Pred. for severe hives after treatments for cancer (aggressive chemo and radiation) once the burns healed I came down with severe hives all over. I was put on Allegra, Clarinex, Zyrtec, Prednisone (60mg), Singulair, Advair, Atarax, and Preventil twice a day. I began feeling like a junky and the pharmacy would question my refills. I have the moon face and weight gain, with cancet treatments and prednisone total gain is 80lbs. I was ready to give up, between the pills, the massive side effects and the hives. I was intrduced to an awesome high antioxident through Market America. I started taking 4 capfuls per day and within a week stopped all my meds. cold turkey. I got hives worse the first 3 days but I was told that would happen while my system detoxed. My doctor added Plaqunel (to cover his butt) but it takes 3 months to get into your system and it is not a steriod. I still get a few hive now and then when I eat something (Red dye, barley-beer) but after I take my OPC-3 they go away without any medication not even OTC meds.
If you want information on the antioxidants I am taking you can find information at www.4thebetterlife.com or e-mail me at ******. I am also taking vitamin C and B12 with the OPC-3 because they assist with inflamation and histimine levels. I am working on the weight (I still gained and was on Weight watcher the whole time) and my face is SLOWLY returning, its been 2 months. I wish you all the best. I will never go on a drug again without researching it first and looking for more natural ways to take care of the problems and this is coming from someone who had 20-50% chance of living through my cancer P.N.E.T. Sarcoma. I am doing great no and I am cancer free and I am getting my life back after steriods.

Have been using lisinopril for almost 3 months. Have had a cough for all of that time. The doctor said my cough sounded like it was related to an allergy. I was given Clarinex, but that did not help. I have to keep clearing my throat and cough quite frequently during the day and at night. People have said to me "you should do something about that cough". They think it is a cold and don't want to catch the cold from me. I have also noticed fatigue and when exercising, my muscles seem very weak. I have decided to stop using this drug. It obviously is having adverse effects on my body. I am worried about the long term effects that might be permanent.

Hello Everyone,
Like all of you. I am a highschool student and competitive athlete (football and baseball) and was diagnosed with asthma 2 years ago. As months passed and numerous trips to my general practicioner/allergist I was given a lot of prescriptions including advair, clarinex, xopenex with the nebulizer, my asthma and lung function became increasingly worse. It was hard to be so dependent on all these medications, which in combination all can make you feel kind of lousy. When my asthma was at its worst I started seeing a chiropractor, and was being adjusted 2-3 days a week. Its hard for me to explain who chiropractic care can reduce asthma, but it has something to do with the spine controlling all systems in the body and when there is disallignment all of these symptoms cant work properly. For asthma sufferers and those sick of taking all kinds of medication I strongly suggest looking into chriropractic care. Today I am completely asthma symptom free, and no longer take a single thing other then carrying the albuterol inhaler with me for comfort, although I havent really needed it. Any questions I would be happy to answer at ******