Prescribing information symptoms and conditions

I was diagnosed with Factor V Leiden after experiencing bilateral PE's in February 2004. Since then, I have gained A LOT of weight. Not that I needed to but dang. I am at my highest ever & nothing I do will make it go down. I am almost 80 pounds heavier than I was in 2004. Something is not right. I suffer from depression (have for more than 15 years). My medication doesn't seem to have the same effect. My joints are killing me so it's hard to exercise.

A side note, shortly after being hospitalized for the PE's for a week, I noticed my hair thinning. Doctor told me it was because of the "shock" to my system due to having the PE's.

I will have to be on Warfarin for the rest of my life. I turn 45 in November. Ugh.

Has anybody had the same problem with weight gain? Is there anything to do about it? I feel I am at the end of my rope & slowing losing my grip.

I have restless legs, nightmares and weight gain. Trouble concentrating, numbness and tingling of the hands and feet, falling. I have been evaluated by a neurologist and no one has made the connection of weight gain to singulair.
Also, have high blood pressure that came on suddenly.

I have followed the South Beach diet and continued to gain. I am going off this drug and really appreciate this website.

I was on it for 2 weeks for an upper respiratory infection and I have mild asthma. I got to the point after the 2nd week I could not feel my legs, they felt detached. I cried. I thought I was water in car when I drove to a doctor appointment. I felt like I had the flu 24 hours a day. No headaches but it never touched my asthma. Two weeks of that junk then I went to a doctor who put me on my medication I took as a kid. One pill and it was over.
Sudafed in my opinion is a dangerous drug. Those side effects they list on tv are a joke. They are the tip of the ice berg.

I have been on Singular for 2 months. I have noticed dizziness and almost passing out. I thought it was my other herbal supplements, but now I am still having the feelings and I will discontinue the Singular! Today I have a headache and just don't feel right in my head, almost like double vision feeling. I'm glad I found this website. I went on Singular for dog allergies, but it is not worth feeling this way!

I took Lipitor for about 6 months. Right after I began taking it, my legs, especially my right leg began hurting. I got off the drug at 6 months because my legs hurt so badly I could not sleep at night. I just had X-rays of my right knee done, and I have almost no cartridge left on my right knee cap. I now may have to have knee replacement therapy. My doctor that put me on the lipitor said that it was not the lipitor that caused. I think it is very odd the pain began when I started the drug.

In July I was prescribed Lisinopril / HCTZ 20 /12.5. Within one week I started to have side effects. These included
-pain in chest - worsened with high humidity
- trouble breathing - shortness of breath - worsened with high humidity
- slight continuous elevated temperature about 99.6 degrees
- near real fainting spells when outside in heat- granted it was hot, but I've never had these before
- loss sex drive
- urinate often
- don't sleep well
My BP did go down though about 10 to 20 points.
still that was the worst summer I've ever had.
After reading others' side effects, I stopped cold turkey and feel much better.
Did you know Lisinopril is extract of Brazilian viper venom? - no wonder I couldn't breath!
My new doctor has me on new drug: Amlodipine Besylate 2.5 mg. which I hope will do the trick.
Bottom line:if you have bad side effects stop and try another drug - there are prenty out there for BP control.

It's so scary reading these posts. Making me wonder if I've made the right decision for my 6 year old. We have just started taking Singular for asthma, it has been only 8 days. The last 5 of these days she has nothing but stomach pains and diarrhea. She has missed 5 days of school because she can't leave the bathroom. Is this normal????
Last night was the last pill she will have.

To anyone new to this site whose child is on Singulair and having problems consistent with the adverse reactions to Singulair documented on this site: take your child to the doctor as soon as possible and tell them you believe that your child is having an adverse reaction to the drug. Do not let yourself be talked into believing that Singulair does not have these side effects. Too many of us right here can confirm that it does. Even though the prescribing information for this drug has been updated to include a warning about these adverse effects, and the FDA is conducting an investigation into the safety of this drug, not all doctors are aware and some are simply unwilling to believe. If you hear "anecdotal evidence", "highly unlikely," or "I've never seen it happen" uttered during your visit, know that your doctor is making excuses for not knowing accurate information about this drug.

Doctors may attribute your child's behavior to their personality or developmental stages. But any child on Singulair should be removed from the drug if a consistent pattern of different or abnormal behavior is present. Most children do not fly off the handle for no reason, have night terrors, prolonged, violent temper tantrums, and act anxious, angry, sad, hateful, disconnected, or withdrawn most of the time. Most children do not have behavior problems that consistently leave you feeling like the worst parent in the world and completely mentally exhausted at the end of each and every day.

Tell your doctor that you want them to prescribe another asthma maintanence medication with a documented low risk of side effects. If your doctor trivializes your concerns or refuses to honor your request, FIND A NEW DOCTOR! YOU are the expert on your child, not someone who sees them a few times a year for a few minutes at a time.

After Singulair has been stopped, watch for a positive change in behavior over the course of several weeks. Make sure you have rescue medications on hand in case needed.

Most importantly, GO WITH YOUR GUT. "If something doesn't feel right, then something ain't right!"

Here's a way out theory about my unique and to me mystifying medical situation....

I recently read where Singulair, an asthma medicine, is suspected of causing suicides, obviously an effect on the brain function. The FDA notes that over the past year, Merck has updated Singulair's prescribing information and patient information to include the following post marketing adverse events: TREMOR (March 2007), (April 2007), suicidally (October 2007), and anxiousness (February 2008). (the tremor highlight is mine since this is a major symptom of Parkinson's )

Well, I took Singulair from 1998 to 2004 and I wonder if maybe, just maybe Singulair could be a contributing factor to my strange Parkinson's but not Parkinson's problems that is
gait,
balance,
freezing of gait problems

Any thoughts or ideas on how I might follow up on my hypothesis?

I work in a health care system and we have used levaquin for this last cough, cold and flu season. It has worked wonders for the various upper respiratory infections.

No one has developed rashes, boils, or bone/muscle pain. After reading the first response, her abnormal reaction sounds more like a bad case of shingles.

Then, I read the last post where the person drank two glasses of whine to help with the blah blah blah. Mixing alcohol with any type of medication will not help with Your sypmtoms were a "full fledged panic attack" as you stated from the beginning.

Nothing but idiots posting here!

As a pediatrician I write for singulair every day.
The medication is for allergies.
Allergies cause adenoidal swelling, which cause sleep disturbances which makes the child tired the next day with makes him over weight, less attentive, hyper and eventually act out.
This in turn makes the child experience parental, peers and teachers criticism/ abuse, with leads to the child feel inadequate, embarrassed, frustrated and eventually depressed and suicidal.

Yes, singulair does cause behavioral change but they appear within the first couple of peels, the rest is due to allergies, lack of medical care, i.e. sleep, singulair, and zyrtec deficiency.
Allergy shots cause 4 times the incidence of suicidally than singulair, and Ritalin 10 times more.
They say in hebrew "once a stone is thrown into a well, thousands of smart people won't find it".
Check it, it's true.

Started taking 11/11/2007; by second pill, had upper respiratory and flu-like systems and had very hoarse voice. 12/31/2007 have completely lost voice and still have upper respiratory symptoms. Did not find that Boniva causes this on patient information available from Boniva, but later found it on another site. Doctor prescribed tetracycline thinking it might be bronchitis but it is not - my chest is fine; it is in my trachea. Has been over a month now without being able to talk and I conduct business on the phone. I was perfectly healthy until I let someone talk me into this because my mom had osteoporosis.

was given Levaquin for ear infection to take 10 days about half way thru taking I began to have aching or sore joints. Thought it was from over exercising but didn't go away .Legs began to hurt and knees swelled Have been treated for this with steroid pk and 10 days of antiinflamitory med which has not helped. I have stiffness and pain in my hips and legs and elbows. This has been going on for a month. Have seen dr 3 times .

Did you try bringing in a u.s. prescribing information sheet and highlighting all the side effects that you have? I realize that dr's dont read and they rely on the word of the idiot pharmaceutical reps, but maybe a highlighted sheet of paper in front of his eyes might open his mind a little. Also, find another doctor (neurologist).

Why are doctors ignoring the fact that this family of antibiotics is hurting people all over the world? It doesn't make sense. If you read the prescribing information from ortho-mcneill you will see all of these complaints listed as side effects. Why are these doctors doing this????? And Medwatch, what's with them. I personally know that they have been bombarded with reports of these drugs and yet nothing is being done. Where can we get some answers?

For information to the previous posts:

I have been off Advair now for 10 days (last post was on March 2). I switched to Qvar and it is working great. It took a week to get rid of the after affects of Advair - legs cramps, palpitations, nervousness, not sleeping at night.

For the last year and a half I wondered what the leg cramps were about; why I wasn't sleeping soundly at night (I thought it was pre menopause); all these different palpitations at various times; waking up in the morning feeling a "heavy" feeling. I also developed diabetes during this time. I really believe the Serevent in the Advair was doing a number on me.

I wrote to the FDA regarding this. On March 6, 2006 the FDA put out a new warning regarding Advair and Serevent (it's on the internet).

I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE TO TAKING ADVAIR OR SEREVENT. BUT SEE YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE STOPPING SO THAT HE CAN PUT YOU ON ANOTHER TYPE OF ASTHMA MED. AND CHECK THE PRESCRIBING INFORMATION!!!