Reported side effects symptoms and conditions

4 years ago i was given simvastatin 20mg for high cholesterol when i was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes....last year (November) i stopped taking it after someone commented after hearing me complain about aches and pains and asked if i was taking statins....i checked and found i could relate to several reported side effects...over the last 10 months my aches and pains had slowly disappeared and my cholesterol was recorded at 4.9 in July ....however 4 weeks ago i suffered an optic nerve stroke and my doctor immediately put me back on simvastatin at 40mg despite my complaints is there an alternative i can take as i don't want to risk loosing any more off my vision and as the aches and pains are returning ...i will reluctantly take it but carefully monitor myself....

Researchers have been doing studies for many years regarding trying to determine the role of genetic factors in patients response to Singulair (Montelukast).

This study from Spain identified the following gene variations hypothesize to be related to leukotriene pathway response. Sixty one patients with asthma were studied. Three gene types were identified:

type 1. Thirty-two patients (52.5%) were homozygous for the five repeats allele;
type 2. 17 (27.9%) were heterozygous (4/5 repeats)
type 3. 12 (19.7%) were homozygous for 4/4 repeats.

The study showed that montelukast was effective for types 1 and 2 but not effective for type 3. Type 3 represented approximately 20% of the group study.

"After the montelukast treatment decrease number of asthma exacerbations, improvement of FEV(1) and decreased use of beta(2) agonists was observed in patients with 5/5 or 4/5 repeats. Conversely, the patients with 4/4 repeats genotype did not modify these data after treatment."

So it seems logical that if it can be identified that montelukast is not effective for certain gene type variations, then montelukast could cause adverse side effects in certain gene type variations.

It is interesting that 20% of this group does not respond positively to montelukast. That is the exact same number that even Merck says gets a headache from montelukast. Headache is the highest incidence of adverse side effects that has been reported. That comparison, however, is just a coincidence because it has not been studied and proven. Maybe.

Where are the studies that pertain to gene type variations and adverse side effects? You would think that somebody could do them.

Respir Med. 2008 Jun;102(6):857-61. Epub 2008 Mar 12. Links
ALOX5 promoter genotype and response to montelukast in moderate persistent asthma.Telleria JJ, Blanco-Quiros A, Varillas D, Armentia A, Fernandez-Carvajal I, Jesus Alonso M, Diez I.
Institute of Biology and Molecular Genetics (IBGM/CSIC), University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain. ******

BACKGROUND: It was hypothesized that asthmatic patients with mutant alleles in the leukotriene pathway should not respond to leukotriene receptor antagonists and the concept of a tailored treatment is increasingly supported. METHODS: Sixty-one patients (mean age 24.9 years, range 14-52) with moderate persistent asthma were clinical and immunological assess prior and after a 6-month treatment with montelukast. Tandem repeat polymorphisms were genotyped in the promoter (-147 to -176) of 5-lipoxygenase gene (ALOX5). RESULTS: Thirty-two patients (52.5%) were homozygous for the five repeats allele; 17 (27.9%) were heterozygous (4/5 repeats) and 12 (19.7%) were homozygous for 4/4 repeats. After the montelukast treatment decrease number of asthma exacerbations, improvement of FEV(1) and decreased use of beta(2) agonists was observed in patients with 5/5 or 4/5 repeats. Conversely, the patients with 4/4 repeats genotype did not modify these data after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: It was confirmed that ALOX5 promoter polymorphisms have a clear influence in montelukast response in atopic moderate persistent asthma patients. The genetic study could identify those patients most likely to respond to montelukast.

PMID: 18339529

My daughter is 5 years old and has kidney disease. She started taking Lisinopril over a hear ago, 1mg/day to control proteinuera. About 10 weeks ago, they increased her dose to 2 mg/day to control her BP. This is the only med she takes. She seemed to be fine with the increased dosage. A week ago, she woke in the middle of night screaming that bugs were crawling on her. We thought she was having a bad dream but she was very coherent. She went to the bathroom, drank water, listened to a book and conversed with us. She was not at all unresponsive like kids are when having night terrors. Yet, she continued to see spiders and bees and was terrified for a couple hours. Our daughter does not take a pill, her med is compounded in a liquid and we thought the pharmacist might have mixed it improperly. We lowered her dose for three nights until the pharmacist could get us a new batch. She continued to wake up each night seeing bugs but her fear was not as great. She would still be up for a couple hours but she could force herself to think of other things and stop the hallucinations. She's extremely imaginative and my husband had recently taken her to see Bee Movie so we also wondered if she was just imagining these things. After getting the new bottle, she had a worse night. I should have called the pediatrician but I had a very busy day and didn't think of it. During the days my daughter was completely fine and happy. She had none of the reported side effects of Lisinopril. She could recount the events of the previous night and was beginning to worry about going to bed but she was her typical cheerful self. So, I gave her another dose of Lisinopril and that night was absolutely terrible for her and the rest of our family. She had severe hallucinations and thought bugs were everywhere and stinging her. For 40 minutes or so, it was impossible to redirect her attention. She was terrified even when our arms. It took about 3 hours, drinking lots of water, for her to calm down. I talked to our pediatrician again and he concurred that we should stop the Lisinopril. We did so and last night, she slept fine.

Ok. This is crazy. My doctor is a VERY good doctor, and has denied my charges against the Mirena. I had not looked into the reported side effects when I complained to my doctor. I have had my Mirena since 2004. No problems at all until about 3 months ago. (maybe longer than that adding the mood swings, loss of libido since the birth of our last son, vaginal irritation, dryness, yeast infections that I never had before the IUD, breast tenderness, joint pain, recent bleeding that lasted a month) I began having heart palpataions so severe that I thought I was having panic attacks. Like a heavy weight being laid upon my chest, too small of an area for my heart to be able to properly beat, loss of breath, loss of sleep (causing me to take tylenol pm to be able to rest). I went to the doctor, and was concerned about the symptoms. She was alarmed, she has known me over 5 years, and I have been in her office only a handful of times. She ran an ekg, did chest x-rays, and found nothing. She sent me on to the cardiologist to have blood work and an echo. They found nothing. I asked her about the possibility of the Mirena being the problem. She thought it was doubtful, but wants to look at it during an exam anyway. My hubby and I are considering having it removed. We can't figure out what other problem there would be. Please email me if anyone has had symptoms similar! I am VERY concerned.

hi ladies,
further to guest 35696 's point about reporting side effects to the fda etc here is the website for the uk's equivelent. www.mhra.gov.uk click on the "yellow card" tab this will send a report about the side effects of medicine. if you also want to look up reported side effects then go to the download side effects page but remember when you do the alphabetical search that yasmin will be listed under it's chemical ingredient (D for drospirenone not under Y for Yasmin.) it makes for quite interesting reading.
It really is very important that we report the bad effects as if no one reports it, it will never be taken off the market or even prescribed with more caution than it is now,it is our responsibility to try to protect other young ladies from this hell that we have all suffered.

silke,maybe i have mis-read the previous post, i find it so hard to figure out meaning when reading a post or text messages,a perfectly harmless comment can sound rude in a message, as i said i did not mean my posting to sound rude,i agree that we should have a "chat room" for all the ladies who want and need contact with other sufferers,this site is getting pretty heavy going now for newcomers that are just looking to see if their specific symptom is here.there are a lot of pages to get through!!!!! if i knew how to start up a chat room i would do it myself but i am a total idiot at anything to do with computers!
hope your gig went well the other night,i love the abba song you were going to sing.

remember ladies please report your side effects.

sarah

These are my son Robert's side effects: Drooling, Struttering and sometimes his hands move by themselfs. His on this medication for about 3 weeks. His weight is 275 and his on 275mg. Please email me and let me know if these are any of the reported side effects.

Thanks,

Norma

PLEASE email dr. Golomb at UCSD about your symptoms. She is conducting a study on self reported side effects from statins. with all of us reporting the myraid of symptoms we have suffered included in the study, maybe the scientific community will be forced to do something about this debacle. like study how statins damage the body and what to do to repair the damage. her email address:

bgolomb@ucsd.edu

thanks, m

PLEASE email dr. Golomb at UCSD about your symptoms. She is conducting a study on self reported side effects from statins. with all of us reporting the myraid of symptoms we have suffered included in the study, maybe the scientific community will be forced to do something about this debacle. like study how statins damage the body and what to do to repair the damage. her email address:

bgolomb@ucsd.edu

thanks, m

PLEASE everyone who has noted an adverse side effect from Lipitor--and especially those of you whose symptoms decreased or disappeared after stopping lipitor--PLEASE email Dr. Beatrice Golomb at UCSD to report your symptoms. She is doing an analysis of reported side effects from statins to be published. her email address:

bgolomb@ucsd.edu.
thanks, m

After being on lipitor for several years, I suffered all of the most commonly reported side effects, extreme fatigue, muscle pain, weakness etc. I experienced some relief after being off of the drug for several months, but would hope for much more. I have preveiously asked to hear the results experienced by other individuals who have abandoned lipitor, and to hear of any remedies (exercise, other drugs, etc.) other individuals have found to be effective.