Xopenex symptoms and conditions

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?

4 yr. old son on Albuterol and Pulmicort for asthma triggered by allergies and colds. He is off of both during the summer, once he goes on the medication for the allergy season he experiences mood swings, violent tantrums, is confrontational, basically his personality changes. We have tried reducing the dose and cutting out one medication or the other with the same effect, the symptoms persist. We feel we have no choice because of the severe asthma attacks.

my 6 year old has what doctor's have called cough-induced asthma or reactive airway disorder. He doesn't wheeze but gets these severe coughing spells which get worse at night. Usually comes on during the colder months. He is on Flovent, and Singulair to maintain When he gets the coughing spells, he gets the Albuterol inhaler 2 puffs every 4 hours. It makes him NUTS. Literally climbs the walls, Can't sit still. I'd rather have him cough than to see him like this. Now with the most recent coughing episode, I've noticed an extreme personality change. To the point where his 1st grade teacher called me to ask if it could be the medicine. He's normally a shy kid, sweet now all of a sudden he's a social butterfly in school and interrupting the teacher. AT home, he's just not right .Doctor changed him to Xopenex inhaler but he's still not right.

After reading all the horror stories on here, me and my husband soon began to realize that we were having a lot of the side effects listed here and not listed on my son's actual Singulair prescription. The side effects my son had were behavioral changes, irrational behavior, inattentiveness, not able to stay on task or stay still -- in fact he broke his arm twice being so hyper, yelling, screaming and just plain mean.

We took our son off of Singulair as a trial for a few days. Immediately we began to notice differences in his behavior. He wasn't as agitated and quick to yell or get angry. (He's only 5 years old). He actually would be listening when we would speak to him. He would sit calmy and read books and the one huge thing he would do was look at us and smile. He even said to my husband once, "I love you Daddy," which just brought tears to our eyes. I never realized what a Singulair fog he was in and what it did to him. Here we were pretty close to getting him evaluated for ADHD or even Aspergers. So now we're in the same boat as others that are searching for other asthma meds to give my son. Right now we have gone back to Pulmicort, Xopenex, Nasonex and Allegra. I'm so glad I read this forum because I was desperately searching for answers for my sons behavioral issues. Oh, by the way he was on Singulair for 1-1/2 years.

After reading more posts and comments to others re: SINGULAIR and discussion of side effects of steroids - I am really scared as you could all imagine! Do I need to look for any side effects from the flovent and albuterol? What should Iook for? I am so not the paranoid type but am quickly becoming more now b/c I don't want my son to suffer anymore. I know predisone long term but what about the flovent which is a steroid? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

This post is in regard to a form of albuterol known as "Xopenex" or levalalbuterol. From what I've read, many pediatricians are using this instead of Albuterol for infants and young children. It's the drug of choice because it supposedly has no side effects. This may be the case for most children BUT not my three year old daughter. Her pediatrician prescribed nebulizer treatments of xopenex and pulmicort, twice a day for six weeks. We managed to stick with it for four-five days- It was a nightmare! My daughter wouldn't eat (and this is a child who isn't a picky eater at all) or drink much at all and went for 12 hours one day without urinating. She was so horribly moody that you couldn't stand to be around her. She cried and screamed about everything and she is normally a very cooperative and happy-go-lucky kid. She also became aggressive towards me and others which was also very unlike her. The worst part was at night. She would have horrible screaming fits when it was time to go to bed. When she finally fell asleep, she would jerk and twitch most of the night. Several times she woke up after sleeping for about three hours, screaming at the top of her lungs. I would try to console her and she would yell louder and pull away from me. If I tried to touch her, she would swing at me as hard as she could. She seemed terrified of me and my husband. It would take me forever to get her calmed down enough to go back to sleep. If someone had videotaped these episodes, blocking out her face, NO ONE could ever have convinced me that this was my little girl. Her personality was so changed that I wanted to cry. I knew what it was doing to me to watch her and I couldn't imagine what was going on in her little head. I called my pediatrician and she brushed off my concerns. She said "Three year olds have temper tantrums." I told her that I understand that but not usually at three thirty in the morning. I took my daughter to MY doctor and he said he thought it could most certainly be the drugs. He suggested that we use the pulmicort alone one night and the xopenex alone the next night. We were surprised to see that she had reactions to both the drugs. One night she tossed, turned and twitched and the next she woke up in a terror. We stopped both medicines and ALL the symptoms ended. She will NEVER use these medicines again unless there are no other options! And we will not be back to our pediatrician!

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've been diagnosed with anxiety and panic attacks since Nov. 15 2007 ended at the hospital emergency room, after using Xopenex been using Advair and Singulair due to my asthma once my Doctor increased my Advair from 250mg to 500mg twice a day on Sept. 5th 2007 noticed fast palpitations and overwhelming. Knew and complained for quite sometime that I wasn't feeling like myself. Since Nov. 26th 2007 I stopped taking Advair, Albuterol inhalers,Nebulizers due to the fact of my new Anxieties that I never had. Continued taking my Singulair medication thinking that it was safe. Only been on Singulair a little over a year. Still continued to experience Anxiety and Panic attacks. Due to this I've been seeing a therapist since Dec. of 07.Has affected myself, my children who have witnessed my episodes of Anxiety attacks and know thats not me.Also has affected my performance at my job and attendance. Just took two MRI's of the brain just last week thinking there maybe something wrong with my brain.My side affects have been Dizzy spells,feeling faint,blurry vision,extremely tired,muscle spasms,loss of concentration, and not being focused. These are my experiences with Singulair and I believe that the FDA should further investigate these allegations. I know for a fact I've been experiencing this for quite sometime and my Doctors tell me I'm just depressed. Ignoring the fact they prescribed me so many medications that trigger Anxiety depression and God knows what. Thank you Cita

My daughter is 20 years old and a chronic asthmatic with severe allergies. She has been on Singulair for 8 years. She has been complaining and in some instances begging her asthma doctor for a reason for her insomnia and restless sleep over the last several years. She takes other asthma and allergy medications. He told her to not take her Xopenex inhaler before bed, as that may be causing the problem, that didn't help at all (sometimes a Xopenex nebulizer treatment is needed for her at bedtime and during the night, during asthma flair-ups). Her doctor just switched her from Allegra (which she has been on since she was 10) to Zyrtec, which is helping with allergies, but not with the sleeplessness. She was taken off of Advair and put on Symbicort in September 2007, this made her asthma worse requiring Prednisone off -and -on since January. She is back on Advair and doing better, but the sleepless nights continue...

We are seriously contemplating taking her off of the Singulair. We aren't 100% certain this medication is causing her insomnia/sleeplessness. However, as she explains it..."If I could get one really good nights sleep, I would go off of the Singulair in a heartbeat". Our fear is that by going off of the Singulair that her asthma will worsen.

My daughter is three and a half. She has been a Singulair since she was 18 months old. She has also been on oral pred, xopenex, pulmicort for her asthma. Last fall, her pediatrician (the same doc who put her on Singulair) diagnosed her as hyperactive and probably attention deficit. She is often difficult to manage. Her pre-school teacher has complained that she is disruptive in class. She speaks at a shout, is demanding and interrupts people constantly. She has been gaining weight -- and I'm worried that even though she is 3 1/2 she is wearing a size 5. She has also developed the hard-blink tic. Her pediatrician has recommended she see a neurologist for the tic. Thanks heavens a neighbor saw a news story on the side effects of singulair and told me about them. I am taking her off the drug now.

Thanks for all these posts! My 4 year old daughter has a history of allergies which have in the past led to sinus infections and bronchitis. We used Xopenex and Pulmicort with the nebulizer along with Vazobid and Delsym and cleared up the bronchitis during Christmas 2007, but her pediatrician suggested her taking Singulair as a preventive medication for her allergies. This medication has turned our household upside down. She has taken it every night for 3 weeks and the side effects are the same as others have posted.......aggressive behavior, severe defiance to simple tasks, nightmares, stomach cramps, wetting accident at school (first time ever), weight gain, bruising, and vomiting. When told "no" she replies with wanting to kick me and tells me she doesn't want me as a mom anymore. The devilish behavior is intolerable. She was never like this before she started taking Singulair, and I am so thankful that I found this website quickly enough to put 2 and 2 together, and I am taking her off of it TODAY!!!

I started taking advair 3 days ago when I had bronchial spasms and started having horrendous leg and foot cramps. I googled the two symptoms along with the new medication and came across this site. I am relieved that I am not the only one surprised by the side effects but now wonder if I should continue on my new breathing regimen or cut the advair and just use the xopenex and singulair. Anyone else cut back without major asthma return?

I am in my second month of ADVAIR HFA 115/21 inhaler. Take two puffs twice a day. Great improvement in my lung capacity. I am 72 and enjoying senior aerobics twice a week, the treadmill, and senior tennis. Pulmonologist also wants me to take Xopenex, which I do about three times a week.

Tonight, I developed a vaginitis. The after-hours nurse and I think it's from these two steroids. I also wake up with leg cramps.

Any help to stop the cramping and the vaginitis.

For those with dry mouth, try Biotene products. They are marvelous. For sores in your mouth and on your tongue, get your doc to prescribe triamcinolone 0.1% paste. Fantastic.

I have a daughter that is 12 yrs old. she has been on advair for about a month and half. she has been having dizzeness,bloody nose, gaining weight and she is also taking singular and xopenex and albuterol neb. i to would like to get her off of all these meds. i also don't feel that advair is any help. she stills wheezes almost every day. i like to thank you people with all the advice you have put on this page. i am now going to take her OFF of ADVAIR.

My daugther has been off and on singulair for about a year or so. We recently started it again, along with a whole bunch of other medications, because her asthma flared up really badly. She recently completed a course of prednisone - during that treatment she was especially moody/hostile, but the behavior seems to be continuing even after we stopped the prednisone.

Granted she's on a ton of medicines right now - xopenex, zyrtec, rhnyotan (a prescription decongestant), pennicillin and singulair. But, I am wondering if singulair is making matters worse. And, maybe it's just reading these posts, but I'm looking back on the last three weeks or so, when the asthma flare up began, and I am wondering if the singulair is a bigger problem than we thought. I'd say her behavrior has trended downward since the flare up began and we started the singulair again. Of course, at the same time, we also started with xopenex treatments a couple of times a day.

Anyway, to make a long story longer, I can't pin this on singulari, but I am surprised at some of the complaints I'm reading here - and how similar they are to our concerns. Our daughter wakes up a couple of times at night now, screaming; she is moody/hostile, has no energy, says her stomach/tushie hurts, complains about leg pains every now and then and lately says her eyes itch really badly. I'm calling the pediatrician and allergist tomorrow.

My daughter is 5 years old and has been on singulair for 1 week. i have already noticed a dramatic change in her behavior. she has become irritable, mean, nasty, and emotional. she has had me in tears on a daily basis. she has turned into a monster. we will be calling the doctor in the morning!

My daughter was born with a breathing condition(never pinpointed) that kept her in intensive care for almost 2 weeks. As she grew she seemed ok. Then pneumonia appeared at 1 1/2yrs. and she has been hospitalized 5 times since with various forms of pneumonia(walking, single, double) since. We moved from the city to the 'burbs and all seemed well. She would take the occasional Xopenex(Abuterol made her nuts). To make a long story short, after 2 years in the new house new symptoms appeared. All of a sudden there was coughing at night that would not stop. We went to a new Dr. and he prescribed Singulair. This was October of '06. Soon thereafter, the behavior began to get worse. Tantrums and extreme moodiness began to become more frequent and her school work began to suffer. We've just been informed that the school is recommending holding her back. When I talked to the teacher, she indicated that my daughter has gotten "worse" since Christmas. Teacher also does not believe that there are any learning disabilities. I know that it is the Singulair. She has the constant stomach ache and no appetite to speak of. All of the professionals are assurring me that Singulair is safe. She is not on this nasty drug any longer... Waiting for changes...

There are no words to explain how I feel after reading just one page of the posts here. I have a 9 year old wonderful son. About 1 1/2 years ago he was put on Singulair (along with Advair, Xoponex, Nasacort, and Zyrtec - also he got allergy shots once a week). He had severe asthma. Well, not too long after he was on the Singulair he started having HORRIBLE thoughts. Just to name a FEW: He thought he was going to stab me or his younger sister and could not go near a knife or anything sharp, he had thoughts of aliens coming into his room at night and skinning him alive and taking out his heart, he had the most horrific thoughts of violence and as he started getting a little older his thoughts were becoming what seemed to be sexually violent. I immediately went through seeing if anybody at school was hurting him or touching him. Nobody was. Since he lives with just me and my daughter (no visitations with absent father) I knew he was safe at home. He is exposed to practically nothing. I asked my children's doctor what could this be and he told me to just tell him to "stop thinking those things". My own doctor wanted me to put him on anti-psychotics. I took him immediately to a child psychologist that specialized in OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) - after researching I came to the conclusion that this is what he had. I was told that the correct name for his condition is called "Morbid OCD" or "Bad Thoughts OCD". He was in therapy from the beginning of the symptoms. I refused to believe that an emotionally healthy child could develop this condition almost over night. I changed our lifestyle - eating organic, very little processed foods, (you name it) etc... I was able to get him off of all his medications except his inhaler as needed. To my wonder and amazement his OCD had gone away. Well, about a month ago his asthma started to show up again. (Since he was doing so well I started to let him have a little dairy in his diet again and other things I had cut out before). His doctor told me that he was going to get scar tissue if I didn't treat it now and that I had to put him on something or he was going to have complicated respiratory issues as an adult. I agreed to put him back on Singular. Well, to my sadness and horror about a month ago my son started having mild OCD and it has gotten worse by the day. Last night, I was sitting at the edge of my bed and it was like a light bulb went off. I kept asking myself, what changed a few weeks ago. Then bingo, it hit me, I had put him back on Singular. Last night I didn't give it to him. I obviously am taking him off of it and will post again and let you know how he develops. I'm sorry for the long post but after reading "worriedmom" I felt I needed to tell my son's story just in case there is anyone else out there with a similar situation. Thank you all so much. I have hope again. I am going to see how he does with his OCD and post again in about a week.

Our 8 month old daughter had a serious (chronic) case of
bronchitis. .083% dosage 4 times a day of Albuterol. Her
eyes rolled back into her head. We broke up the dosage with
same effect. I tried it and found that dizzyness and tingling in
toes lasted a half hour with no reduction in mucus in my lungs. We would not recommend this drug for "any" small
children. Dangerous.

Both my daughter and I have taken Singulair.

We kept my daughter on Singulair for about six months. Like many others have noted, she became violent, agressive, sassy, etc. (She was 5 at the time) After consulting a pulmanary doctor, she was taken off the Singulair and put on Advair, Orapred (for a short term) and Albuterol. The behavioral symptoms stopped almost immediately. As a side note, the brand name Orapred does not cause over-excitedness as does the generic version and Xopenex is a newer form of Albuterol that does not cause the weight gain, hperness and sleeplessness. Her asthma is well under control at this time. Trial and error is the best with all medicines, they have so many different drugs out there.

My personal experience with Singulair is mixed. Sometimes I take it with no or little side effects, and other times I have bad enough side effects that I stop taking it.

Any medication can cause bad side effects, you just have to weigh the pros and cons.

Previous poster please post the results of your Dr. visit regarding the "fast" heartbeat. Just about this time last year I had a problem with my stomach and mouth burning, which I
KNOW was Advair. The Dr. took me off the Advair and gave me medication for my mouth. Somewhere within a week following that, I went back for a re-check. My heartrate had always been in the low 70's. It was all over the board. It was going from the 50's up to 150 and falling back down. This went on for a week and after wearing a halter over the weekend I was sent to a cardiologist. I wore the halter again for 3 or 4 days. He decided it was the Albuterol I was using in my nebulizer. I was also using Atrovent too. They switched my Albuterol to Xopenex. Personally, I can't tell the difference, but within maybe 3 weeks my heartrate went back to normal. I was short of breath and I went back on 150/50 Advair. I am interested to know what your Dr. thinks may be causing the fast heartbeat, and I know there can be many causes. I have asthma too but now they say "COPD".
Please post the results of your Dr. visit. It's always nice to know what causes it.

My 4 month old son was given the usual dosage for wheezing, the smallest dosage they had. Obviously it was way too much because after about the 3rd dose throughout the day he was so hyper and moving sporadically, his heart was racing then his eyes started rolling to the back of his head. It was very scary. The doctors decreased the dosage to only a quarter of the vial. Then we decided to just switch to Xopenex. NO side effects/ PARENTS with BABIES and SMALL CHILDREN I highly reccomend using Xopenex instead of Albuterol.!!!!

I have been on Advair for 3 years or more. I started on 100/50, then went to 250/50. And after a while I had a terrible "burning" in my mouth. I had never associated it with the Advair. During a routine visit with my Pulmonary Dr. I mentioned that my mouth, throat and stomach had been burning very bad. He immediately said, "ADVAIR". I asked if he thought that Advair would do that. He replied, "I know it can". He told me to stop using it and he gave me a prescription for Nystatin. The yeast had gone through my mouth, throat and my stomach and intestines were burning too. However, after a few days I had to ask him to let me go back on the Advair because I was having a bad problem with my breathing. I am now on 100/50. I've had all the same problems that everyone else is talking about. I believe two people have mentioned the "foot cramps". Two of my toes will draw together and I have to pull them apart. I also have bad cramps in my legs. I mentioned the problems with my toes drawing together and nobody seems to believe me. I too have a problem with my weight. I keep wishing I could give up the Advair but I have COPD and use oxygen. I use Atrovent solution and Xopenex in my nebulizer in addition to the Advair. I wrote to the Company about all the "symptoms" I was having. They were very nice, listened to all my complaints and they did follow-up with a letter to my Dr. I'm sure they had heard my story before. But I wii have to say they were concerned and tried to be helpful.

Hello my name is Tiffany, I have a 13 year old daughter whom is going through alot of issues and I now guessing it is all caused by advair not sure yet. My daughter suffers from Asthma, acid reflux, allergies since she was born, she was a premie and only seems to suffer with the asthma issues. She has gained over 60 lbs now weighing 204 from 160 last year. She is constantly complaining about back pain, phlegm in her troat, headaches, mentral cramps. can't sleep, now she seems to be going depression, the doctores wants her to see an therapist he wants to put her on lexipro. My god she is only 13 what is she depressed about, she is always nervous, and upsets easily. She missed over 40 days of school last year. Advair seems to be the only thing that has helped her breathing she has not had as many attacks but she is suffering in othe areas. What do I do. she has been on singular, flovent, provental, pretizone when she is suffering. She is on xopenex for her daily nebulizer treatment or when needed now. She takes flovent, allegra, advair 250/50, topanex for headaches, all of this daily. We are finally getting to a pulmonoligist this month hopefully he can relieve her of some of this medicine. I am going to do research on this serevent we have not tried that one yet. Now since she has been on the advair she has not had problems with her acid reflux. She did change her eating habits. Can someone tell me if they have childred suffering from this medicine as well.

Hello Everyone,
Like all of you. I am a highschool student and competitive athlete (football and baseball) and was diagnosed with asthma 2 years ago. As months passed and numerous trips to my general practicioner/allergist I was given a lot of prescriptions including advair, clarinex, xopenex with the nebulizer, my asthma and lung function became increasingly worse. It was hard to be so dependent on all these medications, which in combination all can make you feel kind of lousy. When my asthma was at its worst I started seeing a chiropractor, and was being adjusted 2-3 days a week. Its hard for me to explain who chiropractic care can reduce asthma, but it has something to do with the spine controlling all systems in the body and when there is disallignment all of these symptoms cant work properly. For asthma sufferers and those sick of taking all kinds of medication I strongly suggest looking into chriropractic care. Today I am completely asthma symptom free, and no longer take a single thing other then carrying the albuterol inhaler with me for comfort, although I havent really needed it. Any questions I would be happy to answer at ******