Term consequences symptoms and conditions

My opinion:

After many hours of searching scientific databases, I have so far been unable to find any research that has been done on how Singulair (montelukast) affects the brain and brain function. So far, I have also found no funding opportunities for any researchers to study montelukast and the brain. That does not mean that they don't exist, I just haven't located any as of today. I have been to many sites putting montelukast in the search area.

I personally believe that this is a consumer BEWARE situation. I personally would not take this drug after seeing for myself how little we can find out about how it interacts with brain chemicals. The FDA needs to require drug companies to study how medications affect the entire body not just one area. Human beings aren't just a nose and a pair of lungs. And we can't keep going around to different doctors to try to find a fix for a medication that is screwing up other parts of our bodies.

After learning that some researchers in other countries have found leukoteine receptors in the brain of human beings, I find it possible to believe that everyone who takes this medication that suppresses the function of those receptors are in some way being affected by Singulair whether they know it or not. I would want to know that Singulair was studied carefully to show how it affects the brain and what the long term consequences are for those who take it. Until that is done, I believe that consumers should heed the warnings regarding adverse psychiatric drug reactions and consider all of the potential options for safe and effective treatment of their conditions. If Singulair is the best option, then consumers should be told what the risk are and how to handle them.

I am a physician and have prescribed levaquin to many people. I have had some of them complain of what they thought were serious and variable side effects but mostly I attributed their problems to anxiety and hypochondiasis. I now know differently. I took levaquin, and for over a year I have had serious CNS anxiety, insomnia, joint and tendon pain, and widespread peripheral neuropathy. It has been an awful time and since realizing that the effects are often long term I have been able to identify many other patients who have developed serious long term problems with anxiety, depression, arthropathy and tendonopathy, neuropathy and possibly endocrine effects like gonadal failure and worsening of diabetes. There are no long term studies done post marketing to identify these effects and to unify all of these problems into one syndrom of fluoroquinolone toxicity. This is a big problem and I believe thousands of patients have been adversely affected by the use and misuse of levaquin and probably the other fluoroquinolone antibiotics. I have other colleagues who are beginning to recognize the long term consequences of levaquin and the fluoroquinolones. More research and study needs to be done. In the mean time I am sure that Johnson and Johnson, Ortho- Mcneil, will continue to refute that the incidence of serious adverse reactions is much higher than they report.

hi 1concernedboyfriend, as murph said in her previous post please talk to your girlfriend about getting off this pill,there are other contraceptive options that are a much healthier,even another brand of pill if she really wants to stay on oral birth control pills,there is just something very wrong with yasmin,we don't know what yet but it seems to cause terrible mental,physical and emotional problems that can have long term consequences,i have been off yasmin since june 06 and am still suffering mood swings and anxiety.like you my poor husband thought that i did not love him or find him attractive any more,he had to watch his once happy confident wife crumble into this shell of a person who was a wreck,i felt not anxious so much as terrified all day everyday i could not leave the house without a full blown panic attack,i had terrible scary thoughts racing through my mind,i would shake,my teeth would chatter,i could not get my breath. my husband was fantastic and he took over the care of the house and our 2 children because i could not do a thing,i would just shake and cry all day.

My son has been on Singulair since he was one. He will be four in September. No noticeable side effects and it has helped decrease the amount of asthma flare-ups. He continues to be a happy, intelligent child. I have a co-worker who's son, five years old I think, who experienced the same type of behaviorial issues in most of the posts involving children. Her son took Singulair for one week and became an instant terror. Thankfully, the medicine has been a positive remedy for my son but I am concerned with the long term consequences of using this medicine. I plan on printing this page and taking it with me to my son's next pediactric visit.

I am so thrilled to have stumbled across this site. So many lightbulbs are going on. I have been gathering pieces of the Advair complications in my life just recently after taking it for years. Finally so many things are making sense. I started taking Advair 100/50 in 1996, and like most people, I had almost immediate relief of symptoms. My alupent inhalers that I used to puff on regularly started to expire before I was even 1/3 of the way through them. What a miracle!
I experienced no MAJOR side effects until my dosage was bumped up last fall to the 250.

From that point on, I have experienced:

* a chronic raw, gravelly sore throat. I saw a specialist (who knew what amount of Advair I was on and never mentioned this as a possibility) He sent me on my way with a pamphlet on heart burn. I don't have heart burn, and my friends joke that I have a permanent new, husky smoker's voice!

* severe dry skin and horrible eczema, concentrated mainly on my lower legs and ankles-- this started almost exactly one month after my dosage was increased but I didn't make the connection

* thinning hair

* cuts, sores slow to heal

* yeast infections are a frequent and nasty visitor

* swelling in my ankles

* toe and leg cramps

* slight weight gain

* irritability-- my typically sunny attitude has shifted to a lot of depression and feelings of anger off and on

Also, like so many others here, when I tried to talk to the Dr. about decreasing my level of Advair, she told me not to mess with success and wanted to hear nothing about it. When I flat out asked her what the long term consequences could be of inhaling steroids, she responded by saying "Well, you don't absorb them in your system since you are inhaling it, so there's obviously nothing to worry about! Harumph.." She acted like it was the stupidest question she had ever heard and left me feeling angry and frustrated.

I consulted with my dermatologist in regards to my eczema.. I have almost been scratching my legs until they bleed because the itching is so insufferable and nothing has been alleviating the symptoms. She confirmed that the Advair use could definitely be linked to my increasing, chronic skin problems. Another patient in their practice had developed full blown Cushing's Syndrome after years of excessive inhaled cortisone. Her skin was thin and papery and her whole system was a mess.

I have an appt with a new dr. this week to begin a regimen of weaning off this stuff. I am quite scared and only wish I would have connected the dots sooner. It was my German brother-in-law, a doctor, who raised red flags with me when I told him about my symptoms and showed him the dosage of Advair I was taking twice a day. He was quite stunned and quickly convinced me the severity of the situation.

My four year old son stopped taking singulair after three months. He usually has a pleasing disposition, but he became terribly moody and agressive for two weeks and even threatened to run away from the house.
Now he is back to normal. It may be better than prednisone, but having blind faith in allopathic medicine and doctors would be naive.
Who knows what the long term consequences are ?