Credibility symptoms and conditions

MAJOR loss of short-term memory and inability to concentrate.

I have been on Lamictal (for bipolar tendencies) for 3 or 4 years now. Overall it has been really great for me -- really calmed me and leveled me out like no other medication has.

Except that it has made me embarrassingly dumb. I have a graduate degree in electrical engineering, which is pretty worthless at this point because I cannot add two simple numbers in my head. My grammar and spelling skills have taken a nosedive. I took a grammar refresher class to try to boost it again, but I couldn't concentrate and can't remember what I learned. And even worse, sometimes I can't remember basic things like which way to flip the turn signal lever to signal left or right when I am driving.

I went up to 350 mg and it worked great (for the bipolar), but I could barely function at my job. So I've lowered it slowly to 150. My brain works a bit better, but still not well. Today in a meeting I was explaining something important and realized a couple minutes later that I was totally wrong -- I'd remembered incorrectly. So I had to interject later and explain that I'd been wrong. Things like this are very embarrassing and ruin my credibility at work.

But as I said the Lamictal has been amazing in other aspects. Ultimately I don't know if trading my brain for that is worth it, but for now it is because no other medication has worked. I worry though that even if I stop it in the future, my brain may not be able to recover, from lack of use.

Thank you all for your information. I am relieved to know I am not alone.

I URGE YOU TO PLEASE SUBMIT ANY ADVERSE EVENTS OF THIS TERRIBLE KENALOG DRUG TO THE FDA--JUST CLICK THIS LINK AND COMPLETE THE FORM: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/. The FDA is responsible for assuring safety of medications. Therefore, it is imperative that the FDA recognize the adverse effects to provide any credibility to a class action suit. Please consider forwarding your case to the FDA to force them into action and begin addressing these atrocities. Here's my case: I am also a victim of having the Kenalog injection administered over a year ago to alleviate poison ivy itching symptoms. Prior to having the injection, I was not informed of any side effects. Not only did the injection not alleviate the symptoms, but has resulted in a discolored and uncomfortable indentation in my left buttock area and psychological anguish because of disfigurement of my body. It is over a year later and the indent remains and continues to cause discomfort. The dermatologist who administered the injection stated that there was nothing I could do to reverse such effects. I reported my case to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Med Watch and strongly urge others to report their adverse event to the FDA (see link above).

I URGE YOU TO PLEASE SUBMIT ANY ADVERSE EVENTS OF THIS TERRIBLE KENALOG DRUG TO THE FDA--JUST CLICK THIS LINK AND COMPLETE THE FORM: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/. The FDA is responsible for assuring safety of medications. Therefore, it is imperative that the FDA recognize the adverse effects to provide any credibility to a class action suit. Please consider forwarding your case to the FDA to force them into action and begin addressing these atrocities.

Here's my case: I am also a victim of having the Kenalog injection administered over a year ago to alleviate poison ivy itching symptoms. Prior to having the injection, I was not informed of any side effects. Not only did the injection not alleviate the symptoms, but has resulted in a discolored and uncomfortable indentation in my left buttock area and psychological anguish because of disfigurement of my body. It is over a year later and the indent remains and continues to cause discomfort. The dermatologist who administered the injection stated that there was nothing I could do to reverse such effects. I reported my case to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Med Watch and strongly urge others to report their adverse event to the FDA (see link above).

I am also a victim of having the Kenalog injection administered over a year ago to alleviate poison ivy itching symptoms. Prior to having the injection, I was not informed of any side effects. Not only did the injection not alleviate the symptoms, but has resulted in a discolored and uncomfortable indentation in my left buttock area and psychological anguish because of disfigurement of my body. The dermatologist who administered the injection stated that there was nothing I could do to reverse such effects. I reported my case to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Med Watch. I urge others to report their adverse event to the FDA--just click on this link and complete the form: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/. The FDA is responsible for assuring safety of medications. Therefore, it is imperative that the FDA recognize the adverse effects to provide any credibility to a class action suit. Please consider forwarding your case to the FDA to force them into action and begin addressing these atrocities. Such documented cases and recognition by the FDA will provide leverage for attorneys in pursuit of a class action suit.

I am a 54 year old male who started taking Lipitor about 4 years ago. It seemed OK at first, but over the next several years I began to have increasing amounts of joint pain after exercise. Nor muscle pain, joint pain. And it seemed to be a result of exercise. By the time I stopped it, I was hurting after everything, not just exercise. I felt better within the first two weeks, but it took about 4 months for me to be able to exercise vigorously again. Over the years I seemed to have forgotten how much vitality I used to have. I am a physician, and because of the long lag time until I felt better, I wondered whether improvement might have related to other factors, so after about 5 months I decided to restart Lipitor. It surprised me that after just one dose, I got back all of the joint pain and fatigue when I was at my worst on Lipitor. I was really hurting. Needless to say, I didn't take any more.

Coincidentally, a physician friend of mine who had statin induced polyneuropathy had a similar experience. After his symptoms went away he found that after only one dose the entire polyneuropathy came back.

Stopping and restarting the drug is a way to test the correlation between the drug and the side effect. For such a large spectrum of side effects to recur after only a single dose, it argues that the problems that my friend and I had was due to some sort of immune memory response. I have not seen this in the medical literature.

I am off it now for about 8 months and am able to comfortably play singles tennis and jog - much more energy (and I took 200 mg of CoQ10 a day with the Lipitor).

I had posted my case on May 17th on this blog--as I noted, I URGE others to report their adverse event to the FDA--just click on this link and complete the form: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/. The FDA is responsible for assuring safety of medications. Therefore, it is imperative that the FDA recognize the adverse effects to provide any credibility to a class action suit. Please consider forwarding your case to the FDA to force them into action and begin addressing these atrocities. Such documented cases and recognition by the FDA will provide leverage for attorneys in pursuit of a class action suit. Also wanted to see if anyone has contacted a lawyer on this issue?

-- By slmgator | Reply | (3) replies | Send Private Mail

I am also a victim of having the Kenalog injection administered over 8 months ago to alleviate poison ivy itching symptoms. Prior to having the injection, I was not informed of any side effects. Not only did the injection not alleviate the symptoms, but has resulted in a discolored and uncomfortable indentation in my left buttock area and psychological anguish because of disfigurement of my body. It is 8 months later and the indent appears to continue to deepen and lengthen. The dermatologist who administered the injection stated that there was nothing I could do to reverse such effects. I reported my case to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) Med Watch. I urge others to report their adverse event to the FDA--just click on this link and complete the form: http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/. The FDA is responsible for assuring safety of medications. Therefore, it is imperative that the FDA recognize the adverse effects to provide any credibility to a class action suit. Please consider forwarding your case to the FDA to force them into action and begin addressing these atrocities. Such documented cases and recognition by the FDA will provide leverage for attorneys in pursuit of a class action suit.

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.

One of the most important questions we should be asking as parents is:

How does Singulair - a leukotriene receptor antagonist (blocks the receptors) affect the normal function of the mast cell?

The mast cell is the FRONT LINE DEFENSE against invading micro-organisms. When Singulair was invented, there was limited knowledge regarding the mechanisms by which the mast cell performed it's function. In my opinion, the focus was very narrow - those interested zeroed in on how the leukotriene receptor performed a role in the cause of asthma attacks and how ashma attacks could be prevented. Well, that's good preventing asthma attacks. But what happens to the mast cell if that receptor is blocked on a long term basis. I am not suggesting that blocking the receptor is bad but what if the long term effect is different than what we are are lead to believe-which is this is a safe medication with no known long term effects. What if the leukotriene receptor was just blocked short term a week or two to allow the body to clean up the mess from the last attack?

I seriously question what is going on with all of these infections. Are they related to crippling the mast cell? Parents should be allowed to question. If Merck doesn't want to answer questions regarding what happens to the mast cell (including are the numbers of mast cell decreased on Singulair), then something really BIG is missing. If by any chance (unknown at the moment) that the mast cell is significantly changed and therapy by montelukast is proper on a short but not long term basis, so freakin' what if Singulair is not a huge money maker any more.

Parents deserve every answer possible when decisions regarding their child's growth and development is on the line. I hope that we get some answers.

Of course, what was there in 2002 were new questions-not necessarily answers about the mast cell. Did anybody apply this to Singulair studies?
May 2002

From Journal of Clinical Investigation

Pattern recognition receptors on mast cells
The Toll-like receptors (TLRs) fit the definition of pattern-recognition molecules, which were originally postulated to allow the innate immune system to detect the 'molecular signatures' of various infectious agents. Although the innate immune system has no memory, it shows a degree of specificity, in part because the various TLRs recognize different sets of pathogen-associated molecules. Dermal mast cells are usually associated, not with the innate immune system, but with atopic dermatitis, but Supajatura et al. have found that these cells also express TLRs. They report here that TLR4, which binds the gram-negative product lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and TLR2, which binds peptidoglycan (PGN) from gram-positive organisms like Staphylococcus aureus, induce distinct mast cell responses. Staphylococcus is known to exacerbate allergic dermatitis, but it has generally been thought to act by inducing antibacterial IgE's, which trigger mast cell degranulation by stimulating the IgE receptor. Interestingly, the authors show that the interaction between PGN and TLR2 can provoke mast cell degranulation directly, sidestepping the need for IgE receptor engagement.

I am a 32yo male and a Paramedic and it has been a living hell for the last two years. Here are my side effects and then my story. Anxiety, anxious, Irritable, high heart rate, leg calf pain, horrible sleep, bad nightmares, depression, suicidal thoughts, thoughts of hurting people, hate being around people, fear of heights (I used to rock climb daily), dizzy- if I move my head too fast or spin around with my son, weight gain(could be unrelated) arm cramping, frequent urination, and mood swings from crying to anger in just a few minutes. Not like me at all! First few years looking back, I was just became irritable and short with people. The last year has been horrible depression and anxiety along with the other side effects. I like many of you who have written here have had many of the exact same side effects. I had a stressful job at times and worked 24 hour shifts. I have always loved people, and enjoyed meeting new people. Not any more!! Two years ago my mother who lives 3.5 hours away asked me why I was in such so anxious all the time. She said, you are not the laid back and carefree man I know. I thought it was just due to some stress about being recently married or the job. The changes took time and I did not realize them or see them. Looking back, others knew something had changed.
Knowing about medications for my job and how to research them, I looked into every possible side effect and how Singulair worked before I started taking it. Looked good in 2004 with no major side effects. A little over a year ago my father became sick. He was going to battle cancer, but before he could, he would find out he needed a heart valve replaced. He got the surgery, went into cardiac arrest at home a week later, and was given CPR by my mother. A local police officer shocked him and got the heart out of V-fib. I slept with him in the ICU almost every night. He died a week after that and my wife was 7 months pregnant. Talk about stress. The baby came and I stopped working to raise our new little boy. I became short with my wife and started to pull away from being around people. I started to have bad dreams with twisted and morbid outcomes. I had suicidal thoughts out of nowhere and would wonder, where did that come from. Just as soon as they would come, they would be gone or I would think about something else. I got dizzy all the time and started to get carsick if I wasn't driving. I used to be able to read while riding backwards or sideways in the ambulance without a problem of feeling sick. That was not like me at all. I would snap at anything and became almost OC about everything. Thinking all this time the last year that I was just depressed about loosing my father whom I was very close too. Our little boy ended up having some medical problems and the insurance company would not pay the bills. More stress! My wife an EMT-Intermediate blew out 2 disks in her back on an ambulance run, more stress again. More insurance problems. I became a basket case! More anxiety, more depression, never got a full night sleep, mind racing, calf pain soo bad I would ask my wife to rub them, arm pains and finger joint pains at night. I also had a high heart rate of 100 almost all the time. Heart palpitations and a few times it felt like my heart was empty off all the blood and would beat very hard in the middle of the night lasting only a few seconds to a minute. Weight gain, moody all the time. I thought just due to all the normal stress in life.
Two days ago I went for a hard hike and came back with a pounding headache. Excedrin always does the trick for me. Not this time! I had seen a second of a news where the anchorman was talking about Singulair. Googled "Singulair problem" and found this site. I freaked out!! Almost all of you are talking about all the problems I have had as well!! This medication is making us go completely mad!! Tried to go to bed two nights ago and my mind was just racing. It has been Singulair the whole time. The only medication I take. It has made me nuts. My head was pounding the worst I have ever felt and my heart was coming out of my chest. I was awake since 3:30am and read the story of Cody Miller. This poor boy had no chance with this drug. He brain was not fully developed like an adult at just 15 years old. He wouldn't be able to fight the suicidal thoughts like I can. I have been to a lot of hangings, suicide shootings, and drug overdoses. I have seen plenty of death.
I called his mother a few hours later and explained to her that by them going to the media and getting the story out, prompted me to look into Singulair side effects. And that they just saved my marriage and my life. I explained to her that she did nothing wrong by giving Cody the medication for his allergies. It works great for the asthma and allergy symptoms for me. But, it ruined the last year of my life! I felt like I was going to have a stroke shortly after talking to her. I had my wife check my blood pressure and it was 154/100 (normally 120/82). Got grandpa to watch the boy and went to the ER. After my lab results came back and talking with the doctor, we decided it was a panic attack and who knows what the side effects of coming off this drug will be? I had stopped taking it the night before. Thanks to all of you who posted here and thanks to Kate and David Miller for speaking up. You saved my life. This medication got worse over time for me. It got worse as the stress level went up. I have been off it for two nights and already feel much more calm and was sleeping fine, until the little boy woke up and wanted a hug, or bottle. I hated almost everyone, I was short tempered, anxious, OC, and wanted to hurt people for no reason. I want my life back. I want the old me, the care free happy go lucky guy! I already feel better and will write hear as the days and weeks go by. I will never take Singulair ever again!! Not one stupid pill!! Look to those close to you and see if they notice changes. Even those of you who have been on it for three years like me. The drug company knew what was up the whole time. Bad men and women who want money over telling the truth. Maybe not everyone taking Singulair will ever have the side effects soo many of use have been living with, but to those of you that notice changes! Throw this medication away now and never touch it again. Get your life back!!! Be the old you again. I will go back to Albuterol (the only medication I used to take). Read the stories about the two year olds and the five year olds that cry all the time and are angry all the time. Little kids tell it like it is. It's not until they get to work for large drug companies as adults due they lie about side effects and wait years to publish paperwork saying that post marketing research shows all these negative side effects. They knew all along.

I've been taking Yasmin for a year and a half now and have been suffering so many side effects I thought I might be imagining them. But now I know I'm NOT! 2 months after taking Yasmin my hair started to fall out in clumps, and has been falling out for over a year now. As if that wasn't bad enough, I've been moody, weepy, anxious, feeling ringing in my ears and vertigo, tiredness and so many other side effects described by other women on this forum.

I felt not myself for so long now and put it all down to the stress of a moving to a new country. But I know better now and only wish I made the connection sooner. I am going to stop taking Yamin immediately, but am worried about losing even more hair. Have any of you had similar experience, and most importantly - will it grow back?

Very bad rash that a week later has not gone away. Nexium actually burned my skin! I look like I have color like I just came from the beach. This is a dangerous drug. it works for the reflux, but the side effects arent worth it. I also develiped hip pain, like it was sucking the calcium out of the bone! The hip pain is gone, but i still have burning, itchy skin, and red all over, less than a week later after stopping, about 5 days off it now. Be careful if you are sensitive to hives, this medicine brought me to the emergency room with swollen hands and feet. it is dangerous!

Lisinopril, yet another med prescribed blithely by our doctors...and yet another drug with side effects beyond those listed. Lisinopril made me extremely tired and yes, the dry cough came with it, moods swings too. But the BP can't be ignored, you gotta do something, right? SO, a LONG story made short, someone with credibility I knew had me try CAYENNE pepper, one teaspoon in water three times a day and was CHALLENGED to check my blood pressure by the second day to see how much lower it would be, After reading on the internet about it (there is much info) I tried it, AND IT WORKS without the bad sides. It's not as horrible as it seems like it would, less firey than jalapenos, for example, and the burning lasts only a few seconds. Side effects? Seriously, my erections seem to be better. No kidding.