Welcome to Medications.com

Does montelukast affect growth in children? Remember the report ...

Posted at 5:25 PM on May 03, 2008 by concernedcitizen, #30156
Does montelukast affect growth in children? Remember the report of identical twins, one took Singulair and one didn't. If I remember correctly, the one who took Singulair was at least two inches shorter in a short period of time. If anyone would like a reason to look into that, then I refer you to this study. It could suggest that leukotrienes act on the pituitary to release pituitary hormones. We don't know what happens when the production of leukotrienes are blocked by montelukast. "Finally, leukotrienes have also been found to act on the pituitary to modulate the release of the pituitary hormones." "The distribution data of HPN321 suggests major role(s) for this receptor in endocrine and cardiovascular systems. CysLTs are well known for their modulatory effects in cardiovascular functions, where they reduce myocardial contractility and coronary blood flow (Letts and Piper, 1982) and have vasoactive effects (Drazen et al., 1980). They are thus considered to be important players in cardiovascular diseases (for review, see Folco et al., 2000). The strong expression of HPN321 in adrenal gland points at a new tissue where to study the influence of CysLTs on endocrine circuits. Finally, leukotrienes have also been found to act on the pituitary to modulate the release of the pituitary hormones (Hulting et al., 1984; Saadi et al., 1990). Our discovery of the existence of the HPN321 message in pituitary adds a molecular credence to this concept. The HPN321 receptor may thus modulate a variety of different physiological functions, which can now be tested using BAY u9773." Vol. 58, Issue 6, 1601-1608, December 2000 ACCELERATED COMMUNICATION Molecular Cloning and Characterization of a Second Human Cysteinyl Leukotriene Receptor: Discovery of a Subtype Selective Agonist Hans-Peter Nothacker, Zhiwei Wang, Yuhong Zhu, Rainer K. Reinscheid, Steven H. S. Lin, and Olivier Civelli Departments of Pharmacology (H.P.N., Z.W., Y.Z., R.K.R., S.H.S.L., O.C.) and Developmental and Cell Biology (O.C.), University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California; and NeoGene Technologies, Inc., Irvine, CA (H.P.N., Z.W., R.K.R., O.C.) http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/58/6/1601
REPLY TO THIS POSTING | Private Message me | Add as friend | Flag as inappropriate
 
Reply about 1 year ago on May 03, 2008 by sing, #7901

I'm not sure about a direct connection between the drug and slowed growth in children. I do think (from our experience and the twins post you mention) that anxiety and eating disturbance caused by the drug can indirectly affect growth rate. A child who has anxiety about eating may eat less and/or in a disordered fashion; this can create a 'failure to thrive' type of scenario. Our then 6 year old daughter was very anxious about eating at certain times and in specific situations (especially at day camp) while on Singulair. During that summer, she lost several pounds (she was only around 41 to begin with!) and she did NOT grow during that time - and for several months after. Looking back, I am quite certain that Singulair raised her anxiety, which caused her to eat in a disordered way, which caused her growth pattern to be altered.

Private Message me | Add as friend | Flag as inappropriate
 
Reply about 1 year ago on May 05, 2008 by catherineevans, #7959

Concerned Citizen-I am being astounded more and more from your research probes. After you mentioned the pituitary, I realized that my granddaughter started her period 1 year after putting her on Singulair at 10! When this happened we asked the doctor if this was way too early, he said that it was within the range but that it was early. At the time of course there was no connection to Singulair(in our mInds) but my daughter(her mother) did ask me when I started my period which was 12 and my daughter started hers at 12 also. We asked her paternal grandmother whowas 13 just to get an idea if this was genetic. I have 7 sisters and asked them all, not one of them started before 12. Anyway, I know you must be bombarded with these concersn but now I'm beginning to think that there's so much more to this drug. I mean the suicides are horrific and now what if it does act on the pituitary to release hormones too early? Also, I believe that this drug was promoted as great and harmless to children, I don't believe the reps know ANYTHING. Thank you for all of your help.

Private Message me | Add as friend | Flag as inappropriate

Make a reply to this posting:

Type your reply to this side effect post:


Medical advice disclaimer
© 2002-2007, Skylabs Inc.  |  About Us  |  Disclaimer/Terms of Use  |  Advertise  |  Contact Us  |  Site Map  |  Developed by: W3matter.com | Sleep Apnea