Tic symptoms and conditions

I've noticed that my 13 year-old son have developed some repetitive rapid eye movements and a compulsive vocalization similar to a brief laugh since using Singular. Has any other reader experienced similar behavioral side effects in themselves or a child they are caring for while using this product?

My 2.5 year old son was on this for a little over a week. We noticed him start to have rapid eye blinking and head twitching every other minute or so. Took him to ER, doctors said possible pink eye even though there was no redness or discharge in his eyes. Followed up with his pediatrician and was told no pink eye but possible reaction to Zyrtec and to discontinue the med. Also advised that it takes up to 6 weeks for medicines to be completely out of the system. Pediatrician is also scheduling appointment with neurologist in case this "tic" doesn't go away in a reasonable amount of time. I wish I'd known about this site and others prior to giving my son this medicine recommended by a doctor. There should be a warning label on every bottle of medicine both prescribed and otc to direct people to websites such as these or a 1-800 number to advise about any and all potential side effects.

My 8 year old daughter was on singular for 3 years and she was very active and a little hyper, after taking her off of singular now for almost 8 months she has incurred a tic, I have brought her to a neurologist and he says no its not from the medication or a side effect from it but I really think it is, she has a few vocal and 1 involuntary movement, this is so terrible that these medications that you think help your children are really hurting them, my daughter was on asthma medications since she was 3, and then the neurologist suggests that I put her on an anxiety medication I told him NO, you are not going to make my child stoned I will find other ways to help her with this problem because what I have read is there is no medication that clears tics, they go away on there own and I believe this I will not drug my daughter she has been through enough with all this medication that has caused this. So I do believe SINGULAR and a few others are responsible for our childrens behaviors.

my 11 year old son became lethargic and had a loss of appetite almost immediately but what concerned us most was the tic that he developed on day 3 and 4 of using Zyrtec we discontinued use as of 3 o,clock yesterday (day 4) he has been sleeping for 14 hours we of course check on him constantly Please do not use this product if you see any of these side effects we never had any of this with clariton but will not take our chances We are going to try just the nose spray prescribed by the doctor no more over the counter meds for us.

I am re-posting this from June. I believe that we have many reasons to suspect that Singulair does indeed penetrate the blood brain barrier. I personally believe that under certain unusual conditions that Singulair can cause neurological damage. I tried before to put together a scenario of brain biochemistry that could explain how this can happen. Of course, I am just hypothesizing and all of my ideas will not prove to be totally correct. From the number of postings here regarding neurological symptoms, I believe that there is an answer out there somewhere. Why the FDA is not searching for this answer is a complete mystery to me.

I believe that it is possible that Singulair causes the same biochemical response in the brain that is cited in this study -- thus causing neurological damage.

"Thus, elevated NO production leading to mitochondrial dysfunction, glutamate release, and excitotoxicity may contribute to neuronal death in neurological diseases."

IS SINGULAIR CAUSING THE DEATH OF NERVE CELLS IN SOME PATIENTS? DOES THIS HAPPEN - ALTHOUGH INFREQUENTLY- BECAUSE OF GENETIC OR BIOCHEMICAL FACTORS OR BOTH?

June 12th
2008
2:56 AM
I have stated many times that I am not an expert. I just post what I find. This has been a mind boggling journey for me. This is way over my head but I struggle to read and understand. Finding answers to why children are suffering from neuro-psychiatric side effects is worth the effort.

I have made the following observations.

1. Some quinolines are known to be able to cross the blood brain barrier.
2. Molecules that ionize are known to be more likely to be able to cross cell membranes. So if montelukast ionizes as a result of change in blood pH to sufficient acid conditions, then it could be possible that it does in fact cross the blood brain barrier.
3. We know that there are cysLT1 receptors in the brain.
4. We know that researchers believe that montelukast may bind at the arginine of the cysLT1 receptor.
5. We know that arginine contains four nitrogens. And montelukast contains one.
6. We don't know what happens to those nitrogens. Are those nitrogens converted to nitric oxide?
7. We do know what macrophages create nitric oxide as I posted.
8. We do know that if something cause excessive nitric oxide to build in the brain that there would be damage to the neurons.

Some people may remember when I got stuck at the astrocytes, the cysLT1 receptors and glutamate. I keep looking for research reports that may shed more light on this.

Titre du document / Document title
Nitric oxide causes glutamate release from brain synaptosomes
Auteur(s) / Author(s)
MCNAUGHT K. S. P. (1) ; BROWN G. C. (1) ;
Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)
(1) Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, ROYAUME-UNI
Résumé / Abstract
We determined the ability of pathological levels of nitric oxide (NO) to cause glutamate release from isolated rat brain nerve terminals using a fluorometric assay. It was found that NO (0.7 and 2 μM) produced (4 and 10 nmol/mg of synaptosomal protein) Ca2+-independent glutamate release from synaptosomes (after 1 min of exposure). Spermine/NO complex (spermine NONOate; a slow NO donor) and potassium cyanide (an inhibitor of cytochrome oxidase) also caused Ca2+-independent glutamate release. Preincubation of synaptosomes with 5 μM 1H- oxadiazole quinoxalin-1-one (an inhibitor of soluble guanylyl cyclase) had no effect on NO-induced Ca2+-independent glutamate release. Ca2+-independent glutamate release produced by NO was greater in a low-oxygen medium. NO, spermine NONOate, and potassium cyanide inhibited synaptosomal respiration with a similar order of potency with respect to their ability to cause glutamate release. Because NO has been shown previously to inhibit reversibly cytochrome oxidase in competition with oxygen, our findings in this study suggest that NO (and cyanide) causes glutamate release following inhibition of mitochondrial respiration at the level of cytochrome oxidase. Thus, elevated NO production leading to mitochondrial dysfunction, glutamate release, and excitotoxicty may contribute to neuronal death in neurological diseases.
Revue / Journal Title
Journal of neurochemistry ISSN 0022-3042 CODEN JONRA9
Source / Source
1998, vol. 70, no4, pp. 1541-1546 (29 ref.)

INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 4037, 35400007527188.0230

headaches, dizziness, tic in an eyelid, depression, leg cramps

My son is 5 years old and has been on Sigulair since he was probably 2 years old. I never really thought anything of his behavior until recently. I took him to the doctor because he would not stop sniffing and said his nose felt stuffed up. The Dr. said his nose was completely clear. I asked her about the Singulair and she said I was the 2nd one this week whose child had recently developed a tic and that the other child was also on Singulair. She said she would call the Drug Rep. and let me know. By the time I got home she had called and I called her back. She said that tics occurred in a very small percentage of children taking singulair and to go ahead a stop taking it. I have also experienced severe behavioral problems ( tantrums unlike anything I have ever seen, telling myself and and my husband that he hates us, he tells us that he is stupid and that he doesn't love himself, he says he will cut his Dad's head off and that he wants us to go to jail.) There is more but just talking about for the first time, I am so upset that I never put 2&2 together. He has also had the leg pains and stomach pains. Everything I have read, fits my 5 year old to a"T". I am in awe over all of this. Today is his first day not taking it and I am looking forward to seeing some changes in him. Does anybody know if there are any long-term affects? Thank you to everyone who is open enough to talk about things and get information out there for people like me . I will never give my child Singulair again. Thank you so much

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.

Here's a way out theory about my unique and to me mystifying medical situation....

I recently read where Singulair, an asthma medicine, is suspected of causing suicides, obviously an effect on the brain function. The FDA notes that over the past year, Merck has updated Singulair's prescribing information and patient information to include the following post marketing adverse events: TREMOR (March 2007), (April 2007), suicidally (October 2007), and anxiousness (February 2008). (the tremor highlight is mine since this is a major symptom of Parkinson's )

Well, I took Singulair from 1998 to 2004 and I wonder if maybe, just maybe Singulair could be a contributing factor to my strange Parkinson's but not Parkinson's problems that is
gait,
balance,
freezing of gait problems

Any thoughts or ideas on how I might follow up on my hypothesis?

My 4 year old daughter has been on Singulair daily for approximately 2 months. We started noticing some minor changes in her behavior early on (shyness, separation anxiety, anger, moodiness) but chalked it up to starting a new pre-school and arguing with her older sister. Then about two weeks ago, she started having an obsessive-compulsive type behavior about wiping herself. My first inclination was that she had some type of infection (yeast, UTI, bladder, etc) but all of the tests came back negative. My doctor told us to stop the Singulair, so we have been off for about a week now, but the OCD symptoms haven't lessened. I would say that some of the other behaviors are improving somewhat, but I am not seeing a "whole new kid" effect after being off for one week. Has anyone had a similar experience with OCD type behaviors? I am beside myself with concern! Thanks for any help.

Hi, I have written on this forum before. Our son (6) was on Singulair for over 3 years for Asthma. Over those years, his whole personality changed; it happened so slowly, however, that we assumed that those changes were "phases". We stopped Singulair 16 days ago, and we have seen big changes in our son. Thus, I want to summarize our side effects by describing the changes in my son:
Suddenly no more fears (nightly waking up scared to death, and fear of being alone in any room in the house during the day), sleeping through the night, less agitated and less aggressive, better listening skills (again!) and more interest in learning (this was a child that once loved science and did math at age 3. He lost interest in anything that had to do with learning). He draws happy faces again. He is also less nervous. He lets us hug him again, and tells us how much he loves us.
Some days are better, some days are worse. There are times he still tells me that he wants to "throw himself in the trash" and other negative things about himself and his life. We also still see obsessive compulsive behavior (a tic where he touches his head and then his legs from his feet up, driving me crazy), but it is slowly getting less severe. But overall the changes are very clear.
As for the Asthma: we still use Flovent once a day: so far we had no setbacks. Our doctor noted the side effects, but was rather surprised about them. Obviously, I will NOT EVER give my children Singulair again, no matter what the doctor will tell us.

My college age daughter was diagnosed with allergies and asthma last winter. She had a series of allergy test and results were grasses, dust mites, mold, cats, dogs feathers. Her main complaint was shorness of breath during exercise, boxing and lately tennis. She is a very healthy young lady that played tennis, ate healthy and stayed away from pop and junk food. This sudden breathing issue is baftling. She was put on Singular and the lowest dose of Advair. For 9 months she has been taking these meds and they don't seem to help. What's more baffling is that 6 months ago she developed an eye irritation, itching, swelling and redness of the eye lid. She has see 3 opthalmologists and 1 cornea specialist. They've all said it's "dry eye". Fine, but what is the cause.
I am one to read all the package inserts to all medications. As a professional, having sat on two Institutional Review Board for Animal and Medical Research at Henry Ford Hospital, I am well aware of all the possible side effects that can arrise with medications.
Recently I read up on Singular, I am confinced that there is a definite correlation of the eye problem with the Singular. I have told all the doctors and non seemed to want to speak with the allergist or work with him, or even consider that this is a possibility.
I intend to have her stop this medication and hope and pray that this will problem will cease. If any one has had a similar occurance with Singular, please respond.

This is about Blepharitis, a very uncomfortable eye/eyelid condition of unkown origin. I was diagnosed with blepharities a couple of months after starting to take Singulair 10 mg. I have also experienced weight gain and severe depression. Also experienced extreme sensitivity to light, compulsive blinking (tic-like behavior) of the eyelids. The eye doc told me I might have to get bo-tox injections to stop my eyelids from blinking. Today it occurred to me to research here and other places whether the singulair could have caused the eye condition. I have seen enough here to make me decide to discontinue the Singulair for a few days. I have been taking it in the morning, and I have noticed that my symptoms have been minimal in the morning before taking the pill, and have been at their peak about three hours after taking the pill. Unfortunately, I have already taken the tablet today, so I'll have to wait till tomorrow to begin the experiment. This is the first time I have put all this together and realized there is a strong possibility of a conneciton.

My daughter started singulair 2005 she has been taking it for 2yrs. She was 7 yrs old now 9yrs old. She get headache all the time and she started with her hands making a fist then making her fingers touch and rub her fingers. Now she has stop soing that and her eyes are blinking all the time. And a tic from her eyes she can not stop. I got on line to see if other kids have experience this yes so maybe it is the drug singulair that brought it on. I ask that doctors if this was a tic and she said it probably was, but now I feel that it is singulair.
cat

After my 4 1/2 year old using Singulair for 2 1/2 years we took him off after coming across this site and we are so thankful! He was having teeth clenching, unexplained aggression (he was so happy and easy going til 3), bed wetting, loss of focus , anxiety and the worse one was tics. He would open and close his mouth and some eye twitching. It was so painful to watch. We didn't know what we did wrong, why this was happening to him, where this was coming from? His pediatrician said there is no relation to medication, kids just get tics some times, it will pass. When it's your kid you can't bear to just let it pass. A pediatric neurologist said it was a simple motor tic , (usually age 5-10) which some children are prone to, said some asthma medications can make it worse as they can affect the nervous system. After 6 weeks off the medication his tics, bed wetting and most of the other symptoms were completely gone. It was gradual, initially i saw no change then suddenly it was less and less and then suddenly completely gone. Symptoms have been gone for almost a month now. It is so unfortunate that these horrible symptoms are not listed when your child is given this medication. I am so greatful to this website,

I have a dry cough, but it's not daily. I experience dizzines the most, when sitting and then stand, I quite often feel light headed. My eye does jump a lot, not sure if this is considered a tic. Also hear ringing in ears. However never new these were associated with the MEDS, thanks alot.

I have been experiencing somem facial tics and numbness since I started taking the lisinopril. I too have a mild dry cough. Has anyone else had the "tic " issue?

My 4 year old son has been taking Singulair for 2 1/2 years. It really helped with his seasonal allergies, asthma and a chronic cough he had. HOWEVER, he too became more aggresive, unfortunately, my sweet angel's personality change was not enough of a red flag for me. Over the past couple of months he's been opening and closing his mouth (tic like), eye blinking, teeth grinding, making sounds with his throat and nose. The more my husband and I talked about it we realized he had been doing some of these things longer, but they were subtle. Now they all came out at once. I have been crying my eyes out, feeling like a horrible mother - thinking my child is possibly developing tourette syndrome. We are do to see a neurologist in 3 weeks, but I just know that it was the Singulair.

Hi All,
I had taken yasmin for only a month and now its more than a month since i stopped the pill. For the past 2 months after i started with yasmin i am getting eye tic.( Under my right eye a nerve twitches. ) I saw a opthalmologist who did all kinds of eye exams and said that the twicth might be bacuase of muscle spasms or eye dryness. I checked on the net and read that eye tic can be caused due to lack of magnesium. Then i saw a post saying Yasmin reduces magnesium in the body and also leads to dehydration. Do u think it might be related to this?Did any of you have some similar side effect?
So i have started today with some multivitamin and minerals pill.
Samp

I have been taking doxycycline for the past 3 days 100mg twice a day because of a tic. I have migraine and I feel pressure. My stomach is upset, I'm not hungry and my mouth feels dry. I have pain around my eyes and and my eyes feel swollen. I have cold sweats.

Yesterday my doctor prescribed the dosepack for reaction to a tic bite that wouldn't clear up on antibiotics alone. He also thought it might help my chronic sinusitis. My sinuses are better and my knees which have a little arthritis also feel pretty good. The rash from the tic bite is slowly fading already and I am only on the 2nd day of 6. My only problem is the night time dose. I woke up feeling anxious several times last night and my legs were twitching. I am not looking forward to this evening's dose.

Today my 5 year old son's father and I conversed about calling a child psychologist immediately for a "tic" my son has abruptly developed this weekend without warning. I spent most of today crying. He saw the Dr. today, and we are to follow up immediately with a nuerologist to rule out phsical damage. For five years there has been nothing wrong with him except seasonal asthma, and as an alternative to the nebulizer we were given singulair 2 months ago. Who knows, meds, in my opinion only lead to more meds. They are evil. My son slightly jerks his head to one side when he is aggitated. I know my situation is a little different than others I've read here, but maybe someone has experienced something similar.

I just switched from Geodon to Abilify last night...and my side effects were 1) incredible insomnia and mania (although the mania might have been caused by an excessive dose of lexapro)...i didn't sleep at all (literally) last night. and 2) sudden tic-like twitches, often involving more than one body part at once (e.g., leg and arm and head).