My son is 8 and he has been on singulair for at least three years...

This is the first that I have heard of side effects happening from taking one off the medication. My daughter was on Singular for 3 1/2 yrs. and we stopped cold turkey because the medicine stopped working. Fortunately all the side effects went away. However, I have to say we didn't realize that the nightmares, hallucinations, and mood swings came from the Singular. We didn't find out until she had been off the medication for a period of time and all those side effects went away. Also, we found out 6 mo. later that Merck held back revealing the side effect about vivid nightmares until FDA forced them to label it on their packaging starting in 2007. With all that said, I still believe that Singular is a good medicine and that for a time period it truly helped my daughter. I only wish that Merck had told all the side effects from the start so that if I had known that nightmares was one of them I would have probably stopped giving her the medication. She went through torture from the nightmares and hallucinations which caused extreme anxiety. Again, I want to stress that Singular is one of the most popular medications out and for all the negativity there is more positive about the help it is giving people. It will take awhile for the medicine to get out of his system. Remember the medicine caused a learned behavior that basically will have to be reprogrammed. My daughters allergies and asthma started coming back full force while on the Singular so that's how we knew it wasn't working and I have to say it was battle to find the right medication for her allergies and asthma. We have finally started taking Allegra 2x a day and she is like a new person. Hasn't been sick in over a year and there have been no side effects from the Allegra. Every once in a while we do a breathing treatment, but I'm talking 2 -3 times a year. Some of the effects your son might be having right now may be due to not feeling weel and not realizing what is making him feel bad. My daughter's behavior would go haywire when she was sick and I wouldn't know that she had an ear infection due to her sinus's, or she was having trouble breathing. Her ears would be clogged and she had a hard time hearing which would make her irritable. So many things could be going on. I would take him to an ENT and make sure that there isn't any sinus or breathing problems. Hope this helped a little.

Hi there! I had no idea of a withdrawal period either.... My son, like yours was on the med from age 2 til now just turned 7. It may take a while before the things he has learned because of how his mind USE to react, change. My son always fights shower time.... he stomped in there like the old days fit to be tied just yesterday, fussing and complaining, then tried to make the cry face and get upset. He stopped and looked at me. I said, "you've got nothing, right?" And he said, " Yeah." Sighed and got into the shower.
Before we took him off the medicine that would have ended in major tears and fit with both of us upset. In fact that night he even took the shower all by himself. He was always too afraid before, and I have to help him with a lot of things. (He has some issues with fine motor skills because of a cyst in his brain, and he has Aspergers so he isn't real social or up to the rest of his peer group in a lot of ways.)
Anyway, there could be something else going on with your son, I am glad you are taking him to the Dr. I'd say some blood tests are in order. My son had a test recently to detect if he had a brain event that was metabolic or like a stroke. They can test the blood for everything these days!
Good luck to you guys. Hope this helped some.

Dear Amy:

I took my 7 year old off of Singulair in January 2007 after he had been on it for 4 years. Looking back through the records, I see that his severe symptoms started after his dosage was raised at about 5 years old - when he started Kindergarten. He developed severe anxiety, especially at school and in unfamiliar social settings. At home he was better, but he did start having "explosive" reactions to things he found difficult. We started using the Collaborative Problem Solving approach developed by Dr. Ross Greene, who wrote The Explosive Child - which was helpful when he was this way.

When we stopped the medication, we did not expect miracles, but definitely saw a change. I believe that his most extreme side effect - talking about wanting to die - did go away almost immediately, but the anxious behavior faded gradually over time. I read the posting above about the boy in the shower, and that reminds me of how things happend in our household. My son would start out getting upset, almost out of habit, but then it would resolve more quickly each time.

I do believe that the medicine acts on the brain, and it will take time to establish new patterns of behavior as the anxiety ebbs. Today my son has practically no signs of social anxiety - and I had almost given up hope that he would be able to function on his own in groups. And he is much more manageable - not perfect, but just like many other kids his age.

I wish you the very best. Feel free to send me an email if you have more questions. I will add that I think some children are more vulnerable to this side effect if they have any sort of even mild tendency to any kind of condition like OCD or Aspergers or ADD. There is OCD in our family, but it seems to me that such early onset of such severe symptoms is rare unless triggered by a traumatic event - or some kind of medication!

Thanks for sharing your story. I hope your son continues to improve. I truly believe he will. - Jan