Throat clearing symptoms and conditions

I have been taking zoloft for 14 years for panic disorder with mild depression. various doses, but now im at 200 mg, and have been at that dose for a long time. it was like a lifesaver from my previous med, imipramine. i did have really vivid dreams, weird ones, for a long time, but not so much anymore. i think that the long term effect of taking it has taken a toll on my mental clarity/concentration, though. I feel like i can't concentrate on anything or complete a thought anymore. even typing this i feel like i'm getting lost. like i'm constantly in a fog. or it could be that i have 5 month old twins, lol, i guess. but really, its never been this bad.
i too feel like i have had some loss of emotion, not feeling sad when its completely appropriate to. and i've also had way too much emotion at the wrong times, flying off the handle at people and such. the worst thing is my dr. would ask me "what makes you happy, what do you do for fun?" and i would just stare at him with a blank look cause i had no idea what that felt like anymore. or maybe i couldn't think enough to answer him. physically i think zoloft makes me twitch - eye twitches, nose twitches, throat clearing. and i can't have an orgasm to save my life :(
recently i've been having some breakthrough anxiety and my dr. wants to add wellbutrin to the zoloft. if anyone has experience with this please send me a message. i'm kind of scared to do it.

So happy to find this site. I never noticed My son never had an eye tick until last month, ironically we started giving him Singular on a daily basis about the same time. My son just turned two and is has also been waking up screaming 3 times every night. Have others reported this same problem...also he is on Pulmicort too, have you read that it is linked to Glaucoma and Cataracts? Do you think that this could be causing the tick? Please HELP! I want a parent's opinion before bringing this up to the doctor...they are so quick to jump to more drugs it makes me sick! Thank you! Any other children with eye "ticks" like really quick consecutive blinks?

Just took my 6 year old off Singulair after he began blinking incessantly... very frightening. After a couple of weeks on Singulair, I received a note home from his teacher that he was blinking all day at school. Sure enough, when he got home the blinking continued... non-stop for several days! Fortunately, I was able to find information relating this behavior to Singulair. After a few days off the medication, the blinking stopped and has not returned.

My dosage has been 250/50 and I have been using the medication for about 3 years. I have experienced increased mucus, hoarseness, and thrush. I now have the thrush under control by thoroughly rinsing my mouth after using the inhaler. The hoarseness was not caused directly by the Advair, rather it was caused by frequently clearing my throat due to the mucus. My wife is a speech language pathologist and noticed my frequent throat clearing and explained that throat clearing irritates the vocal chords and causes hoarseness. By avoiding harsh throat clearing the hoarseness has gone away. I still have issues with thick mucus but it is minor nuisance compared with the improvements to my breathing.

I have had a cough now for almost 6 weeks. Not just a cough, but a COUGH that feels like my lungs are going to be expelled. It is an awful tickly throat cough, a gagging cough, the worst cough I have ever had. After all sorts of antibiotics, allergy testings, chest exrays, inhalers, and after reading these posts, I finally figured out it was probably the lisinopril. A doctor wanted to put me on steroids, but I said to forget it. I am tired of pills. I have also quit the antibiotics, as I feel they have not helped. I have had other bothersome conditions that could be attributed to this also: nasal congestion, throat clearing, hoarse voice, breathless, anxiety. As of today, no more lisinopril ( my doctor now agrees). I will be in Hawaii the next 10 days, so I hope the coughing stops soon. I hate it!!

My son had a cough for most of the winter last year. This year we made enough fuss that they looked into it. They did chest x-rays and they were clear. They put him on antibiotics and robitussin w/codeine and singulair. He is 5. The cough went away I was so excited. Then like 3 weeks in he started this throat clearing grunt. I thought it was just a bad habit he picked up at school he also got nasty and emotional and couldn't concentrate and this is a very quit witted 5 year old who's pre-k teachers are always threatening to send to high school, anyway they had me set up an appointment with a ped. pulmonologist. His RX ran out before the visit so I just let it go thinking if he needed it they would tell us at the visit. The day before he started rolling his eyes up in his head then the day after the visit (sat.) I hadn't gotten the new rx's yet which were singulair & albuterol and flovent inhalers. Sat night the eye rolling was getting worse and he started jerking his head to one side and opening his mouth to the side and after he went to bed he had an asthma attack. Sunday the eyes and mouth and head jerking was worse and I was in tears scared to death. I gave him the singulair and the inhalers and made an appt with his ped. I gave him the singulair on monday too before I found this site. I was horrified but relieved to find people who had similar experiences with this med. Mon. was his last dose and it is now friday and the eye rolling, head jerking, grunting and the mouth thing are all gone he is doing a little eye twitch where he looks down and to the side but only a few times in an hour. Used to be almost constant. His ped didn't think it was the singulair neither did the pulmonologist. It's so scary that these doctors have no idea. I made an appt with our chiropractor who is also a great homeopathic dr. to find out what we can use instead of singulair.
If there are any lasting side effects from this med.....

This entery is for saintmorrow with the enter #32070
I wish you could have lived with my son for the 7 weeks he was having major side effects then the two weeks he was having withdrawls. The side effects some people have are nothing to talk about. If it was not for this forum I would not have linked singulair to his problems. Thank god we read this and took him off of this terrible medication he may have lost him mind. He has started be his happy go lucky self. The only thing that still remains is the throat clearing.
(A thankful mother for this forum)

I was on Advair for almost three weeks. Within the first few days, I thought it was helping. Then I started having really bad problems with acid reflux, throat irritation/hoarseness, a dry cough, need for nearly constant throat clearing, and tightness in the throat. It also seemed like the Advair was getting less effective in helping my breathing. I ended up going to a asthma specialist. In addition to asthma, I found out I may also have this other condition called Vocal Cord Dysfunction (VCD). VCD is commonly mistaken for asthma as the symptoms and triggers are very similar. Also, there is a fairly high rate of co-occurance with asthma and some literature even suggests having asthma predisposes one for developing VCD (having GERD and allergic rhinitis also appear to be triggers). In one study, 56% of individuals with "severe" asthma were found to also have this condition. Another 10% were found to not even have asthma. The point in talking about all this is that I think in my case taking Advair significantly exacerbated my symptoms of VCD. M y doctor's response was to put me on prednisone when the Advair didn't work. It seems like lots of people posted concerns about similar side effects to mine and some even noted they were having more trouble breathing. They might want to look into this condition. Here's a link: www.cantbreathesuspectvcd.com

My 3 year old has been on Sinulair for almost two years. It greatly improved her asthma and allergy symptoms. However, we started to notice eye blinking, stretching out her upper lip, and throat clearing after a little over a year. Her behavior hasn't changed though. The first time I took her off the med, all of the tics disappeared within 2 days. However, her asthma symptoms and cough are much worse than they ever were before the medication when she is off the Singulair. Whenever I take her off, the next day she has a chronic cough that albuterol won't help. Does anyone else have this problem?

I have ben taking singulair for allergies-tree pollen and an asthmatic cough for a little over 2 years. It wasn't until I had been taking it for a year that I really developed a lot of the side effects-weight gain that won't go away, mood swings no interst in sex (my husband's not very happy) exhausted, nightmares about work, my family ,anything, sore throat, throat clearing,thirst, stomach pains, acid reflux, and my blood pressure hasbeen higher at the doctor's office lately. I didn't realize that singulair was the cause of all this stuff. I've been off of it for 3 days and I feel more rested-no nightmares,sore throat is going away, no dying of thirst feeling and the throat clearing is lessening. I don't think I'll ever renew this perscription again.

I am 20 years old and have been on Advair 250/50 for 5 days. Already I am experiencing extreme fatigue, a sort of spacy, hypnotic feeling, anxiety, depression, mood swings, dry mouth, thick phlegm, constant throat clearing and it is ruining my life. I'm in a tap dance company and have not been able to perform even simple rountines. It has also placed a strain on my relationship with my boyfriend due to the mood swings, depression and increased irritability. I am harder to be around and he doesn't understand why. I am so glad I checked this site. I thought I was going crazy.

CONSTANT throat clearing AND weight gain. I am a fitness freak; work out like a fiend and eat extremely health but I cannot lose a lb to save my life. I never knew an Advair side effect could be weight gain until I read these testimonials. Those of you that have gained weight, have you stopped the Advair??? What are you taking now????

I have been on advair for about 3 years. My two biggest problems are weight gain...lots! And the constant thick mucus in the back of my throat and in my lungs. I have never cleared my throat so much in my life. Even when I was just on singulair. Yes, my asthma is really under control, but at what future cost? I understand that having asthma attacks can damage lung function for sometimes as much as a year, if the attack is bad enough, but I am tired of how I look and my constant throat clearing and coughing. My father is also on Advair for his asthma, and he is the same way.

I am so glad I found this site. My son was put on Singulair a week ago for a mild case of asthma along with coughing after playing outdoors and constant throat clearing. The constant throat clearing had me worried and I had heard that it COULD be a symptom of asthma. A referral to an ENT doc found the asthma. Anyway, after several days on the stuff, I noticed that about 2 hours after he takes the med, he becomes feverish AND, his behavior was becoming increasingly aggressive. The other evening he got so angry about something he started banging his head on the table! This is NOT my little boy. His coughing had subsided but it didn't do anything for his throat clearing. So, I looked at the leaflet that came with the med and saw that fever and aggressive behavior can be a side effect. I stopped giving him the Singulair. Doing a google search this morning, I found this website and am glad to see that this is not my imagination and that others have also had problems with the constant throat clearing. Does anyone have anything to say about this?
I've left a call with his doc to see the next step.

Since being on Singulair regularly (about 3 weeks), our 7 year old son has been experiencing constant throat clearing from the time he gets up and active in the morning increasing throughout the day, until he goes to sleep at night. We have not noticed it during the night while sleeping. Also, he has been having a few nightmares.
I would not say he has been more irritable/moody, but definitely less focused, more defiant/harder to handle.

hi everyone. i bought a report (which i probably shouldn't post here lest i get into trouble!) that specifies dosages for quercetin with bromelain for children and adults. we tried it with my son after taking him off singulair and he did great. in fact, we're just down to a little bit of throat clearing now--no other allergy symptoms and no asthma attacks yet (knock wood). it's REALLY hard to do with the littler kids because they can't swallow the pills and it then has to be put into a food or drink and it's not the most pleasant thing. my son was able to drink it in pineapple orange juice through a straw. he had to do it three times a day. we've since stopped, but would do it again if his allergies start acting up because i do think it works. if you can get your child to take it somehow i think you will find it helpful.

good luck!
(and i'm not at all, in any way, associated with the person who wrote the report--i actually feel kind of stupid for buying the thing because i'm sure the information is available free somewhere online!)

Thickened oral mucus leading to excessive throat clearing

in response to auswes, #13091, YES! my son has both the throat clearing AND eye blinking on singulair. since he's been off it we aren't having the eye blinking, but the throat clearing is still present (and it's very annoying and distracting). we're not sure whether that will go away or not. flovent may or may not have alleviated it before. we're experimenting now, which sounds awful, but it's much better than having him be crazy on singulair!!

I have been using Azmacort (Corticosteriod) for the treatment of my Asthma for over 8 years with great success. With the new laws elimating the use of CFC propellents by the end of 2005, I decided to go to my Allergist to discuss possible alternatives. She immediately prescribed Advair telling me that it contained both a Corticosteriod and a long acting bronchodilator (Serevent).

I started using the 250/50 Advair diskus and within a week was experiencing all of the symptoms describe by other users:

Stomach Bloating
Anxiety
Constant throat clearing
Hoarseness
Sleeplessness/Night sweats
Chest tightness
Worsening Asthma

I immediately went back to my Allergist the very next week and told her of the problems I was having. After a complete check-up, including a breathing test, I was told everything appeared normal and that there was no explanation for the problems I was experiencing. She reluctantly told me that I could go back to using the Azmacort, which I did, and all of the symptoms eventually disappeared within a couple of weeks.

I have been researching Azmacort articles and found that KOS pharmaceutical has acquired a 10 yr agreement to produce Azmacort, along with testing of non CFC propellents.

From my personal assumption, it appears that the Servent additive of Advair may have been the cause of my problems.

Also I have been wondering whether the diskus (powder) was effective in reaching my lungs, or was it just hitting the back of my throat and being ingested into my stomach causing both the throat and stomach problems I experienced.

One thing for sure, I will NEVER use Advair again.

Had been using Azmacort for over 5 years with great results. Was switched to Advair, because I was informed that Azmacort was being phased out because of the CFC/Ozone laws being put into effect. (Azmacort uses a CFC propellent). My doctor prescribe Advair and gave me a starter sample. After just one week of being on Advair my Asthma symptoms went from great to horrible. Within that short period of time I experienced tightness in my chest, constant clearing of my throat, stomach bloating, increased anxiety, tremors and night sweats.

I still had a current prescription for Azmacort and returned to using that. Within a week my chest tightness has gone away, my constant throat clearing has disappeared, I have been able to sleep through the night without waking up in a pool of sweat and no longer have the anxiety, but still experience the bloated stomach feeling.

After doing some research, on my own, I have found that Azmacort will still be on the market for at least another 10 years and they are working on a CFC free propellent.

I will be sticking with Azmacort and will NEVER try Advair again.

i posted here (#12536) on august 10th reporting that my son had really bad emotional side effects from singulair and i just wanted to follow up. we've taken him off singulair and after about a week of not taking the medication he's doing much much better. he's no longer depressive and whiny and his separation anxiety has decreased tremendously. also, no more tantrums. since taking him off singulair we have been giving him a natural remedy for allergies and asthma (quercetin with bromelain) and although his throat clearing symptoms are back he hasn't had an asthma attack or a severe allergy attack, even around a cat, since we stopped singulair. without the quercetin he would have had, at minimum, a severe allergy attack, so we do feel that the natural remedy is at least taking the edge off his allergies until we can find another method of treatment.

please, everyone, keep reporting your symptoms here and keep telling your doctors. i printed this entire thread and gave it to my son's doctor. if they read it and just one other child is helped i'll be thrilled.

* Hoarseness (continuous)
* Phlegm in throat causing me to clear my throat frequently (my spouse is a speech therapist and she said frequent throat clearing will irritate the vocal chords and cause hoarseness)
* Canker sores occur more frequently and take longer to heal
* Two occasions of thrush (Oral candidiasis) over past year

I have always rinsed after using Advair. This medication has effectively controlled my asthma symptoms.

I am a 39 year old woman who switched from Azmacort to Advair in December for a few weeks. After that short of time, I felt me throat feel like it was closing up, I was agitated, and one morning after a week of building symptoms, took my blood pressure which was 20 pts higher than usual. I also had burning in my chest and felt on the verge of a panic attack. Since then I was prescribed Pulmicort, and it has been so much better.

I also accessed this site mainly because of my son who is 6. He was diagnosed with cough variant asthma and some allergy to outdoor mold. The doctor started him on Advair, and over the last month or so, the behavior change has been startling. He has been very agitated, clearing his throat constantly, wetting the bed, saying he was"scared" at bedtime, saying he was "happy on the outside but sad on the inside", and being so hyperactive and inattentive as to be staring right at him when telling him something, and he would totally go off and do what you just told him not to, and be genuinely confused as to why he was in time out.

I have an appointment tomorrow morning with the allergist and have had him off of advair for four days. Already the throat clearing has stopped and the behavior has subsided. I am also hoping to keep him off of singulair as well after hearing about those side effects and see if we can manage for now. Thanks for all of the helpful info and we will see.