Pseudoephedrine symptoms and conditions

Oh my! I've been having severe anxiety since i've started singulair. The anxiety leads to shortness of breath which is extremely scary r someone with my medical condition. I had to have valve replacement surgery 4 years ago so I am very sensitive to any abnormal feelings I have. I took claritin d or about 8 years and I wanted to get off this drug because of the pseudoephedrine. I am off this drug starting tomorrow and will take regular claritin without the pseudoephedrine. The anxiety I had was so great I might actually consider legal action.

I took this to try and help some rather chronic sinus congestion. I only took one or two doses (it was a few years ago), but became really ill. I have palpitations normally, so I didn't notice that. However, I was leeched of energy and ended up spending half the day vomiting or feeling like I had to. I was cold and clammy, which is extremely abnormal for me. According to my coworkers, I looked pretty darn bad. I somehow made the long drive home (I wouldn't recommend) and tried to sleep. Eventually I passed out for a good 8 hours, but still felt yucky the next day. Naturally, I haven't touched the stuff since. To be fair, these side effects are listed under the drug info (online), but who thinks they are going to be in the small percentage affected? Also, in response to an older post, it's NOT pseudoephedrine. It is the ingredient in mucinex and a decongestant similar to or found in the "new" crappy sudofed. I've been taking pseudoephedrine for years with no problems. Glad I found this! I thought I was the only one!

To Guest # 33389,

Thank you for your post. It looks like there are a lot of people who seem to experience the 'ear congestion' problem.
I was given all sorts of decongesting tablets (pseudoephedrine etc...) and nothing worked at all and these medicine gave me nausea and horrible heart palpitations so I decided to do without them. I was never convinced that it was congestion as I did not have a cold or feel like I had.
Once you have been to your RN, please let me know what his/her comments were regarding this. I am scared of flying because of this, as last year I was so sick during a long haul flight that the plane had to do an emergency landing and an ambulance took me to the ER in the nearest hospital. During the flight I experienced terrible nausea/ low heart rate / horrendous headache / strong convulsions / unable to move my limbs and unable to speak, to cut the story short: at the hospital they did all the tests: blood, urine, heart rate, head scan, They could not find anything. I was a healthy person and they could not find any explanations as to why I felt sick.
I did explain to the doctor there that I felt congested in the ears and he said that I could not be as this would have shown on the scan.
Before Yasmin, I never experienced that kind of problems when flying. I am flying again (4 hours flight) over Xmas and I hope I will feel ok. I am sure that this was due to the Yasmin and its side effects. I hope also that this is not related to a heart problem.

I have been an RN for 11 years. I just want to say that I think many of your childrens problems may not be related to Singulair. Children w/ADHD to begin with will probably experience an exacerbation of their symptoms since allergy meds in general can cause a little "jumpiness." Also, as w/ most allergy meds, you can become shaky and some people who are sensetive to such meds may become anxious.

I think people are too quick to point the finger. Some of these symptoms may just be normal childhood drama. Take your children back to the doctor and have it checked rather than trying to diagnose the problem yourself.

Ive been on singulair for years with no problems. I also in the past had suffered from anxiety. This has done nothing to exacerbate that. I find it to be a great allergy med with far less adverse efffects than over the counter meds like pseudoephedrine. After reading some of these posts it just seems like the blam on Singulair is snowballing just a bit.

Again....get a doctor's opinion. Maybe this med is just not rught for eberybody. Thats why there a whole slew of others to try.

....Just my 2 cents.

Have had insomnia for 3 days on this med, after specifically telling the MD (not my regular doctor) that I had trouble with pseudoephedrine. My heart rate was very rapid and irregular. I am also an athelete, and drink tons of water. This medication wasn't in my PDR, so thanks to this web site I have found what the culpret is, and it isn't menapause!!!!

I know that the stuff is supposed to clear the nose... but I use it to help me concentrate better at work and college; it gives me incredible focus.
I used to take Ephedra pills but those are now banned. Luckily pseudoephedrine works just as well. Typically I take 120mg with coffee in the morning (about 10am) and that will last until 6pm for sure (sometimes longer, hence my unfortunate "whiskey dick" experience).
Dry mouth, horribly bad breath, lots of urinating, difficulty in sqeezing out the last few urine drops, itchy scalp, and "whiskey dick" are some of the side-effects.

Yes, I developed a severe sore throat when I started the Welbutrin. I failed to mention the other side effects that I noticed while I was on Welbutrin XL 300mg. Dizziness, nausea, HEADACHES EVERY DAY!, sore throat, neck pain, back pain, very sore muscles, tunnel vision, I became anxious and nervous, and I think the worst one that I could not handle was this wierd "electrical" feeling that would pulsate throughout my body. It would make me tense up and it felt like my teeth were tingling all the way down to my feet. I am back over to Lexapro 20mg a day and will just have to put up with the weight gain.

The guaifen is an expectorant, so of course it will make you cough!! That's what an expectorant does!! It loosens the phlegm so you can cough it up and out (unless you just WANT to swallow it). Also a bronchodilator which helps breathing.

The loss of appetite, not being able to sleep is caused by the PSE part of this Rx--PSE being pseudoephedrine which acts like speed for a lot of people.

Makes my nose a little dry but drains my sinuses and opens up my lungs, which is why I'm taking it!!

This is merely time released Sudafed. You people on here who have all these crazy problems are ridiculous. If Pseudoephedrine is such a problem to these people, I dread what other simple drugs like aspirin or Maalox must do to you.
Anyone with half a brain knows that you need to drink lots of water with this drug. If you don't, you will encounter extreme dryness and head / bodyache. Just as well, it doesn't take a genius to read the common side effects of Pseudoephedrine before taking the drug. The things people are reporting here are typical common side effects. What is this, 'the uninformed alarmists' forum or what?!

I have been taking pseudoephedrine for many years for relief of nasal stuffiness. In the past 5-6 months I have been experiencing urinary retention, going to the emergency room once. I read the warnings of possible side effects, one being urninary retention--in men. I am a woman, no prostate gland involved here. In looking back at any of the symptoms and when they occurred, they occurred during the time I was taking pseudoephedrine. I have found no possible side effects listed referring to women having urinary retention. Has any other woman out there had this occur?

Then do you not find it strange that all these people have had the same symptoms? My husband had been experiencing horrible side effects for days before he finally asked me to find out something about this medication and I came across this site. I had taken this medication last fall and had the same horrible side effects. I didn't lay eyes on this website until the day I posted his side effects, June 13.

In some cases, yes, people may read about these problems and begin to imagine they're having the same ones. I can vouch that we had these symptoms before seeing this site, and we were shocked that so many other people were experiencing the same things. Sudafed may have the same active ingredient, but Guaifenix may have it in a stronger concentration, or it may contain other ingredients that cause people to react differently to the pseudoephedrine. Who knows?

Whether you take Guaifenex or Sudafed 12 Hour, you're taking the exact same chemical: Pseudoephedrine. This is the chemical which makes these medications work. Go look at a Sudafed 12 Hour package and see for yourself.

And I'm sorry, but nobody's been hallucinating or vomiting blood from taking Sudafed tablets.

Pseudoephedrine is okay for most people, just not for you people. When was the last time we all had our lives destroyed by Sudafed? Get real: thousands of people take Sudafed and never have problems. Pseudoephedrine is not a problem for me.