Depression suicide symptoms and conditions

I am astounded that this study of old data is being used to reinforce the message that Singulair is not connected to depression / suicide. The study is disputed by the fact that those suffering from the life threatening and incurable "Mental Illness Side Effect" see a complete return to normalcy within 7-10 days off the drug.

My own personal story, like many others, was a complete and total nightmare for my family over many years. In short, I went from a 10 year successful career as an art director with tremendous responsibility at a top international arts museum, to 2 years of full-time disability unable to leave my home with crippling anxiety/panic/depression. I was very lucky to have a loving wife and supportive doctors intervene before I took my own life.

The last few years is a blur of toxiPharmacological hell. A frustrating long string of tests, medications and treatments were attempted without any success... much to the consternation of my care givers. Not one of the dozens of doctors that I saw raised any question about the 10mg of Singuliar they knew I was taking daily.

Financial ruin, forced me off medical insurance. So I stopped all the psychoactive medications and came full circle back to suicidal ideation with more determination. A few months later, in March of 08' I could no longer pay out of pocket for may asthma medication Singulair and was surprised to find the mental illness begin to lift. A few days later the stories broke on the wire that this drug was perhaps connected with the unfortunate suicide of Cody and other teens. A week or so later, I felt myself again after many lost years.

Merck may have quietly updated the patient info several times over that period, but they made no attempt (still haven't) to reach out to prescribing doctors and pharmacists to let them know about potential issues. It seems that Montelukast interacts differently in individuals, and while it may be beneficial for many folks it is criminally dangerous not to increase the awareness of the side effects.

My General Practitioner pointed out that the original Montelukast study was quite large as these things go, but considering that it is prescribed to millions of people it is truly an irresponsibly small fraction sampled over a short period of time. Adding insult is the fact that these studies are conducted by the very company that seeks to benefit from positive findings.

The ALA has done a terrible disservice to the people the ought to represent. Downplaying the verifiable risks of suicide by recycling old data is completely and totally heartbreaking. I am ashamed to say that since I've been off the drug, I have been so preoccupied with trying to rebuild my life that I haven't been as forthcoming an advocate for the issues associated with Singlair. Misbelieving that others would take up the charge of spreading awareness and information so that new patients and their families would at least know the risks and be ever watchful.

Since that no longer seems the case, I offer myself and my well documented medical experiences with this drug, to anyone trying to get the message out. The media will pounce on the ALA study, giving many families a false sense of security.

Be well.

Everyone please go to the American Lung Association home page to read the article on their "research study" into the association between montelukast and depression/suicide and write to: ****** with your experiences. I wrote a letter with my son's negative experience, stating why I thought their study was flawed - they only studied 569 children and adults (I think there are more posts of negative reactions in children on this site alone) and urging them to do a more exaustive and statistically singificant study before releasing the results. This drug is unsafe and we need to take action to get it identified as such by the medical community.

Please contact me if you would like to help by sharing your story with the media,I am looking for stories of recovery after stopping the medication.Please use my private email under kate2 or just reply under this posting.Kate M.