Suicide risk symptoms and conditions

Update...Today is the 11th day my 7 yr. old son has been Singulair free! He was taking it for "cold induced" asthma. He never had the typical asthma where he needed an inhaler. He got RSV when he was almost 3, then whenever he got a URI it seemed to go straight to his lungs, so the dr. prescribed Singulair and Xopenex (to be used with a nebulizer). I had asked the dr. a few times to take him off Singulair because he seemed to be doing much better and I wanted to see how he would do without it. The dr. would say "oh, let's wait until summer or let's wait until allergy season is over" and kept putting it off. I just had some sort of bad "feeling" about it. Of course, I look back now and know with certainty that his wierd behaviors started around the time he started Singulair. I am relieved now because his erratic behaviors are almost totally gone!!!! When I heard the news I decided to take him off the Singulair immediately. I was nervous because he had a cold and a bad cough, but did it anyway. You know what? He is fine! His cough is almost gone now without the help of Singulair! He is much happier and can actually focus on doing his homework without getting up from his chair until he is done. Before he would get up about 10 times and just couldn't sit still. He has a better attitude about everything now! He is doing great! I hope everyone who was taking this and stopped is doing better! I learned a valuable lesson from all this. I won't put him or my other son on anything until I research it! I will not trust anything anymore, and that in itself is sad, but true. Good luck to all!

I have been on Singulair for nine years and I thank Merck for discovering and manufacturing it. I also thank my doctor for prescribing it to me. I have my life back! I had asthma so bad I was on high dose inhaled steroids and Albuterol. I had a nebulizer on my kitchen table and a drawer full of Albuterol in my refrigerator. Like clock work I would wake up wheezing and gasping for air and have to administer myself a treatment at 4 am every morning. I would try to exercise and I would wheeze and cough. I then went on Singulair and my nebulizer has been in the basement for at least 9 years, I have the drawer back in my refrigerator too. I exercise now and even ran my first race last summer without needing an inhaler. Thank God for Singulair. I am not going to die from my asthma.

There are so few choices to treat asthma and allergies and all the medications have problems like an FDA black box warning for increased death on Salmeterol(I stopped taking that) which is in Advair and emotional disturbances with steroids and increased suicide risk with Zyrtec which is now over the counter.

I do feel sorry for Cody's parents. It must be tragic to lose a child. My heart does go out to them. However looking rationally at this story, there seems to be a whole side missing. The news story did not mention anything about Cody's past history on the news. Did he ever have signs of depression? Was there an interview with his doctor? Was he having problems with friends at school? Was he into any drugs or adolescent games? Teenage boys also have the highest rate of suicide, medicines aside.

With all due respect, I never saw any of Cody’s friends or teachers be interviewed. Maybe this did happen and I missed this but I watched the news cast videos. Could there be more to this story that is purposefully being edited out or just not asked?

I never believe the media fully. They are very irresponsible and inaccurate at times.
If you read the product information of any drug including aspirin you would never want to take it. The truth is that many times the benefits of drugs out weigh the risks. I know I will keep taking my Singulair because I do not want to die of asthma sucking on inhalers like my mother did.

Okay so I'm reading all of your postings and I about to totally flip out. My 6 yr old was diagnosed with a very mild case of asthma (an occasional cough that got worse with colds) when he was around 3. The doctor prescribed him Singular and I'm almost positive they started him at 5mg and now I'm reading that it's not recommend at that dose until 6yrs. He is very prone to severe mood swings....one minute screaming "I hate you!" and making commits like "I'll get a knife and kill myself!" to acting like there is nothing wrong and the previous outburst had never occurred. As a rule he is an extremely lovable kid but has these sudden outbursts. Having said this he has been off the medication since October with out any noticeable change. My concern is that if this medication has these types of side effects could it have long term or permanent effects on such young and still developing children. Has anyone else out there had their child off the meds for more than 6 months and not seen improvement in their behavior?