Inhaled corticosteroids symptoms and conditions

Our 11 yr. old daughter was prescribed with Singulair. She started taking it today with much hesitation from her parents. She was on this medication years ago for her mild asthma, but her mood swings/depression were terrible. We have a new ENT now and he promises that the mood swings/depressions are NONSENSE and that these rumors were put to rest years ago. We will be watching her side effects closely, but my question is if Singulair helps so much, what other medication can someone take that does not have these side effects? What is the alternative? She is also going to see a pediatric pulmonologist in August.

I have been on advair for 2 years and am starting to experience headaches that last the entire day. It helps with my breathing difficulties and I am unsure if I can just stop taking the medication. Its really difficult for me right now and I'm starting to feel depressed about it. I'm not sure how I'll get through this.

Daughter just turned 2, started Singulair on her birthday, so it has only been 9 days. Already it has had such a positive effect on her reactive airway disease (a.k.a. asthma). In January, she had maybe a one-week break from constant runny nose, bad coughing, and 2 a.m. Albuterol treatments. Right after starting Singulair, she got a sniffle--which has always led to bad coughs, etc. But this time she dodged it.

About the same time, she has become more resistant to naptime. She used to just lie down and go to sleep, but lately she stalls and complains--like a typical 2-year-old. Of course, she was probably exhausted from coughing all night! Lately she'd been sleeping 7 pm to 8 am and then napping noon to five!

If it makes her only slightly more intense, I'll take that over worrying whether she's going to suffocate in her sleep. But, having read these comments, I will definitely keep a close eye on her! Pediatrician suggested we try taking her off it for the summer, and back on for the fall/winter.

My son has been on Singulair for about a year and a half...it really seemed to help his allergies...at least at first. This winter has been very dry and I have been having to give him other over the counter allergy medication as the Singulair isn't helping much. He also started losing weight..just not hungry. At first that was ok as he needed to lose a little but then he was getting too thin. He wasn't eating much at school but refused to take a lunch from home. I took him to the doctor just recently to see if he was physical ok since I didn't know what was causing the weight loss. The blood testing showed everything was normal and I just told him he had to start eating better...he has somewhat...but also he finally told me he has been feeling very depressed...seriously depressed and having suicidal thoughts too due to some kids picking on him at school.

I knew there were problems as he complained alot but I had no idea it was this serious. I have taken him out of that school. Right now I don't know if the Singulair could be adding to this depression or if its all just due to the bullies. While he complained a lot he never acted as if it was bothering him that badly or I would have gone to the school about it. Anyway I stopped the Singulair and am going to see if his mood improves or not. After reading some of the scary posts on here regarding the side effects I am wondering if this is a good idea stopping it or not. I am waiting for a call back from his doctor on it. Since its once a day..its kind of hard to wean them off of it...but I could cut it in half ..do that for a few days, then cut it smaller and so forth. His is chewable so I could do that with no problems. He is 13.

To get the real information in regards to what level of research that is going into this investigation is.go to the Institute for Safe medicine practices click on Quarter watch.
To people like chris555, I believe you are engaging people for sport and say very hurtful things,your day will come and it may just be in the unemployment line.I can only imagine that you must work for Merck or you would not feel so threatened by the good that has come from Parents advocating for their childrens safety.I want you to know, that all who knew our family and our child understand what took place and our reasons for trying to get the proper information where it should have been," on the label". When our child died no one knew about all the added side effects from post marketing reports,which is "a reliable way to track a drugs adverse events".Maybe you should do more research on the legitimate information of causal relationship. Don't be so afraid of a possible drop in revenue for the drug company that I believe you might be an employee of.K. M.

Oh my gosh. I am on this website because I googled "behavior issues with Singulair" Both of my children are on Singulair. One from as young as 5 months old. Both Pulmonologist, allergist and Internal med Ped. insisted that it was a safe drug. They aren't living with it. My 7 year old has taken it consistently for 5 years and recently upped is having behavior, aggression, insomnia and constant reports back from the teacher on his behavior. We had him psychologically evaluated and they found nothing uncommon to his age. All his issues are described in almost everyone of these side effect threads. I am just afraid to take him off and feel the blame if something serious happens. I am calling tomorrow for possible alternatives.

OK MY DOC JUST GAVE MY 14 MONTH OLD SINGULAIR THE YOUNGEST IVE SEEN IN HERE WAS 2O MONTHS. WHAT WAS SOME OF THE FIRST SIDE EFFECT THAT YOU ALL SOW THAT I NEED TO KEEP AN EYE ON

What you will not hear elsewhere: Though Singulair is likely safe, it is ridiculously over prescribed. Singulair is indicated for the treatment of allergies and asthma. For allergies, It has not been shown to be more effective than Claritin (which is now generic and over-the-counter). In fact, when Merck-Schering were trying to add Singulair to Claritin, they found it no more effective than Claritin alone (sound familiar?). In this case, they decided not to manufacture this new pill. The most effective agents for allergic rhinitis are inhaled nasal corticosteroids. Flonase is now available as generic fluticasone, and is much more effective then Singulair (which is not generic), Claritin or the combination of the two. Regarding asthma, the updated 2007 NIH guidelines recommend inhaled corticosteroids for asthmatics of all ages. The data is overwhelming, clear and convincing. Singulair, which has much less of an effect is considered alternative therapy by the NIH. Yet, Singulair remains one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for asthma.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

To all the parents who are wondering what else their child can take as an alternative to Singulair, please read an exact quote from a leading professor of Pharmacology and Pediatrics at the University of Florida:

"In response to your last comment, I think 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."

There you have it folks. Singulair is NOT an important drug for pediatric asthma and has an overall moderate efficacy. Inhaled corticosteroids have a much higher efficacy. I have communicated directly with this professor through email.
Any questions??

Singulair associated with Churg-Strauss. A study in France and Germany.

Thorax. 2008 Aug;63(8):677-82. Epub 2008 Feb 14. Links
The leucotriene receptor antagonist montelukast and the risk of Churg-Strauss syndrome: a case-crossover study.Hauser T, Mahr A, Metzler C, Coste J, Sommerstein R, Gross WL, Guillevin L, Hellmich B.
Dr A Mahr, Department of Internal Medicine, Hôpital Cochin, 27 rue du Faubourg Saint-Jacques, 75679 Paris Cedex 14, France. alfred.mahr@cch.aphp.fr.

BACKGROUND: There has been some concern that leucotriene receptor antagonists might precipitate the onset of Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS). A study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between the leucotriene receptor antagonist montelukast and the onset of CSS. METHODS: Medication histories of 78 patients with CSS from France and Germany were retraced by questioning the patients, treating physicians and dispensing pharmacists, and from medical records. Using a case-crossover research design, exposures to montelukast and other asthma medications during the 3-month "index" period immediately preceding the onset of CSS were compared with those of four previous 3-month "control" periods. Odds ratios (ORs) were computed by conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: The ORs for CSS onset were 4.5 (95% CI 1.5 to 13.9) for montelukast, 3.0 (95% CI 0.8 to 10.5) for inhaled long-acting beta(2) agonists, 1.7 (95% CI 0.5 to 5.4) for inhaled corticosteroids and 4.0 (95% CI 1.3 to 12.5) for oral corticosteroids. Montelukast exposure during control periods increased temporally over three consecutive calendar periods of CSS onset from 1999 to 2003 (p(trend) <0.0001). CONCLUSION: Montelukast use was associated with a 4.5-fold higher risk of CSS onset within 3 months. However, the positive estimates obtained for other long-term asthma control medications suggest that this link might be confounded by a general escalation of asthma therapy before CSS onset. The association between montelukast and CSS observed in this study is probably also explained by the increasing use of this medication over time.

PMID: 18276721

I discovered this site last Wednesday morning - without taking the time to list all of the grief I felt reading through the pediatric postings, I will briefly note my 4 year old daughter has been on Singulair for 2 years now. What I now realize is all the behavior issues, night screaming, etc. are so easily dismissed as stages of a toddler. She has suffered (as well as our family) every symptom and behavior listed by parents on this site with the exception of leg cramps.

Our entire family can see the dramatic results since taking her last pill last Tuesday night. The melt downs and tantrums are all but over, she even commented "hey, I listened right away" on the second day without Singulair. She is still having night terrors - I call them that because they are in no way a dream or nightmare, but rather agonizing moments that break our hearts to hear. I hope those will soon go away as well so her sleep pattern results in a restful night.

Am I angry that we have all suffered for 2 years only to find we have been basically poisoning her? Am I angry that for the 2 years her dad and I have sunk pretty low, feeling inadequate as a parent to teach and discipline our child? Am I angry that after 20 years of marriage, raising a great 16 year old in the midst of all this, we were to the point of the ADD, bipolar, etc. theory that would have been misdiagnosed? Heck no, we are all so thankful to have come across this site and are so giddy and excited to be happy again.

What I am angry about is this - when I called our pediatrician last Wednesday and relayed what I had seen on the Merck website for side effects added in recent months she had not heard this information and asked where I saw it. At that point I had not seen this site. I asked her how is it the well dressed pharmaceutical reps come in with doughnuts, exotic trips, etc. to market a drug with "ABC" treatments and "XYZ" side effects, continue to market the drug and never update the doctors when original selling points are altered - ie; new side effects.

The FDA website is troubling for two reasons: Merck is in charge of their own investigation regarding recent complaints and the FDA expects this to take 9 months. Gee, who gets to investigate themself? Secondly, in February the site notes the FDA and Merck are trying to find the best way to communicate the concerns being investigated to prescribes and patients. HELLO - we live in a world of real time, instant communication methods, two examples being the United States Postal Service and an internet connection.

Today is April 30 - a full two months after "trying to decide how to pass this information on" and my doctor, nor my pharmacist have received any information. Apparantly since we missed the story and coverage on Dateline we are out of luck.

I plan to start from ground zero to get our voices heard to change the way, or the law if you will, to implement an immediate communication link between the FDA and prescribes when an investigation such as this has been initiated. I realize Singulair has most likely benefited more humans than it has destroyed while on the drug and the FDA would have to clearly not communicate "panic". However, when a drug is used for pediatric treatments we need information quickly to assess on behalf of our children. In my case, since my daughter had been on the drug since 2 years old, I do not know what her "normal behavior" should be as that is the age they start to develop and show personality. Additionally, when enclosed prescribing information is updated with a prescription -MARK IT IN RED, "UPDATED INFORMATION". I read every ounce of information that accompanies a new prescription for any family member. I would NOT, however read the information every 30 days for an ongoing, long term prescription over the course of 2 years.

I am looking for anyone that may have started contact with a congressional representative or otherwise to change the communication to our doctors. Please note - I am in no way interested in any legal action regarding Singulair and our nightmare. We are moving forward and do not wish to live the nightmare one moment more. I simply want to see our doctors and pharmacists have vital information as it happens.

Thank you to all for sharing your experiences - I truly believe it is changing lives and making a difference. I am personally telling everyone I know about what is happening with our child and all of yours. Andy by the way, by telling one of my long time friends our amazing discovery, she realized she had been suffering from depression for some time and chalked it up to various things going on in her life. She had her last Singulair last week and feels tremendous! So keep the word going!

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.

From England 1998:

Montelukast

Montelukast (Singulair) is a leukotriene antagonist for use as an add-on therapy in patients with mild to moderate asthma who are inadequately controlled by inhaled corticosteroids and short acting beta2-agonists. Since it was marketed in January 1998, CSM Mersey has received 31 yellow cards detailing 47 suspected reactions to montelukast including:
• 15 (32%) CNS disorders including headache and drowsiness
• 14 (30%) GI disorders including abdominal pain and indigestion
• 5 (11%) skin disorders including sweating
• 7 (15%) musculoskeletal disorders including arthralgia and cramps
• 2 (4%) psychiatric disorders.
26 of these reactions were not listed in the Summary of Product Characteristics at the time of reporting.

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~druginfo/csm/ADR_bulletin14.pdf

My 15 y.o. daughter has has first hand experience with weight gain on Advair. About 6 years ago at about 9 y.o., she gained 20 lbs in 6 months - and it started happening exactly when she started the drug. She was very active (swim team, gymnastics, etc) and did not overeat. It is very frustrating that both her pediatrician and her asthma/allergy specialist deny that her small dose of Advair is to blame.

For some reason, and I have talked to others that this has happened to, switching to Singulair did not help her with the weight problem. Seems the people who are hypersensitive to inhaled steroids are also sensitive to Singulair. Concerned about her rapid weight gain, and because she was always so thin, I took her to an endocrinologist to rule out any other problems. After a lot of bloodwork, he concluded that he could not rule out that it was a side effect of the Advair and/or Singulair, and that they may have elevated her blood sugar. I have read tons and tons of postings on the internet about children & adults rapidly gaining weight from inhaled corticosteroids (i.e. Flovent, Advair), along with the round face, bloated stomach, stretch marks, thin skin, easy bruising, etc. but nobody ever says what happens after stopping any of these drugs. Do people ever go back to normal? Do kids look like themselves again? Do any of the side effects disappear?

She is now 15 y.o. and cannot reverse her weight gain no matter what (30 lbs overweight). The last 2 years, she has only been on a small dose of Pulmicort (a different class of corticosteroid even safe to take when pregnant) since she has mild persistent asthma, and allergy shots have helped trememdously. My husband and I have been looking for 6 years now on how to avoid our daughter's weight gain with asthma drugs. If you run into any info., please let us know. Any experiences or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

My son is 10 years old and has been on 5 mg. singulair for 3 years. He has been getting frequent headaches,and is in the bathtub right now screaming with one! Also alot of depression.I just came upon this website accidently ,by searching the internet for what might be causing such headaches in a child. I was shocked at all of these symptoms! I am not going to give him any more singulair.But what is everyone doing to replace it and deal with their kids asthma problems? My son has had so may behavioral issues and being so unreasonable and always thinks were picking on him.To extremes! Very hars to deal with,constantly! TC

Good evening all....I as well as you all have a story to share about my son. Kameron lived the terrible twos to the fullest and turned into the biggest sweetheart when he turned 3. But then his doc wanted to try something stronger for his allergies and thats when Singulair changed out lives. Kameron has been on that junk since about November/December and since then everyones lives around him has been pure hell. He turned into satan in the flesh. I have never seen as much anger as I do in my son. On a weekly basis we go through stomach pains, depression, anger issues, him not eating for days, many sleepless nights, and thats not even all of them. He has spit in my husbands face and called me very bad words (that nobody has ever used in front of him towards me), Ive walked around with black eyes from him (remember he is only 3), he has given me bloody noses and straight up told his dad and I both that he hates us, and doesnt love us anymore. We cant take him around our friends children cause he is very abusive and controlling with them. He shows no interest in the things that he once loved, like his toys and pets. We have taken him to the doc and have been told over and over again that he is just a typical 3 year old but a mama knows when something is wrong with her baby!!I havent seen my sons precious smile since this stuff has taken over him or even heard him laugh. Im taking him to a different doc tomorrow and takin all of your comments with me and I am not leaving his office till they do something for my son!! My thoughts n prayers are with all of you that are goin through this cause I myself now how hard its been..

It would have been about 4 years ago My Doctor prescribed Singulair for my 16 year old son. He became very hateful and always in a bad mood and at times major fits of anger. At one point he got so angry ridding in the car together that I pulled over and made him get out and walk home in the rain because he was punching the interior of the car windows, and I was worried he would break them and hurt himself and others. He ran away from home....and so on...you get the drift. He quit the Singulair and is scared to take anything new now. He says he take Benadryl and uses Albuterol but won't take anything else. Now I started taking Singualar a year ago and I have done okay on it however I know that sometimes I snap at things that in the past I didn't. The funny thing is when the doctor gave it to me I mentioned to him the effects it had on my son and he looked at me like I was crazy!

Posting my experience again.

You are not alone and your children are NOT hypochondriacs (something tells me small children don't even know what that means).

My 5 year old son was diagnosed with mild asthma and put on Singulair. Within a few months he began having uncontrollable fits of rage, displayed self-loathing behavior, had night terrors, and was inconsolable during these episodes. He became very destructive and was a danger to himself and our family. He even talked about killing himself and would say things like "I don't want to be in this life anymore" and "I want to kill myself". He would threaten my wife and his siblings and told them he wanted to kill them. It was a truly terrifying experience. Our pediatrician was clueless to these side affects and recommended we have our child go through a psychological evaluation. I knew this was not my child's normal behavior so I searched the internet for Singulair side effects and found some message boards where parents just like me were telling their stories of their children's aggressive behavior. I immediately took my son off the drug and within a couple weeks he was back to his normal self. He told us that he no longer has "that feeling inside of him". Five year old children don't even know what suicide is and to see my son talk like this was extremely frightening. He is a sweet, intelligent, loving boy who had never exhibited behavior like this until he went on Singulair. We have not seen this behavior after taking him off the drug. Please use your best judgment and connect the dots for yourselves.

28 y/o male. I have used advair on and off for three years. I started on 100/50 twice a day and eventually reduced to once a day. Right now I am trying to wean myself off it completely; I haven't had a dose in 48 hours. I have been on some kind of inhaled corticosteroids for asthma since early childhood. I never had any issue with weight gain. The side effects I noticed with Advair have occasional heart palpitations and dizzyness, and loosing my voice. Since I have to speak publicly because of my job, the voice loss has been the worst. I wouldn't describe it as horseness, but rather a sort of vocal weakness or wateryness. I normally have a fairly deep, loud voice, and it comes back within 48 hours of discontinuing the advair. I tried every method of rinsing out my throat and mouth to avoid the voice loss, to no avial. As I said above, I have been 48 hours without a dose, and I feel fine. Wish me luck. I'm interested to see if I can make it without the steroids...its been over 20 years.

My 12 y.o. daughter has has first hand experience with weight gain on Advair. About 3 years ago, she gained 20 lbs in 6 months - and it started happening exactly when she started the drug. She was very active (swim team, gymnastics, etc) and did not overeat. It is very frustrating that both her pediatrician and her asthma/allergy specialist deny that her small dose of advair is to blame. For some reason, and I have talked to others that this has happened to, switching to Singulair did not help her with the weight problem. Seems the people who are hypersensitive to inhaled steroids are also sensitive to Singulair.

Concerned about her weight, and because she was always so thin, I took her to an endocrinologist to rule out any other problems. After a lot of bloodwork, he concluded that he could not rule out that it was a side effect of the Advair, and that it may have elevated her blood sugar.

I have read tons and tons of postings on the internet about children & adults rapidly gaining weight from inhaled corticosteroids (i.e. Flovent, Advair), along with the round face, bloated stomach, stretch marks, thin skin, easy bruising, etc. but nobody ever says what happens after stopping any of these drugs. Do people ever go back to normal? Do kids look like themselves again? Do any of the side effects disappear? She's been off the Advair for about 6 months now (uses albuterol as needed) but cannot reverse her weight gain no matter what!

My husband and I have been looking for 3 years now on how to avoid our daughter's weight gain with asthma drugs. If you run into any info., please let us know. Any experiences or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Some of you are posting that your children have been prescribed Advair and I am very concerned about this....

I am not a medical professional, but I do know that ADVAIR HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED BY THE FDA FOR USE BY CHILDREN.

It states in the pamphlet that comes with the medication that Advair is for people over 12 and "the safety and effectiveness of Advair Diskus in children under 12 has not been established... Controlled clinical studies have shown that orally inhaled corticosteroids may cause a reduction in growth...in pediatric patients."

Please, if you have a child under 12 that has been prescribed Advair, talk to your doctor about the safety and possible risks and ask about finding an FDA approved alternative.