Singulair and 3 years

I am a loving mother of a 5 1/2 year old boy. He has been on Singulair for over 3 years. In this past 3 years my son has suffered in an unspeakable amount. He came down with Rota Virus and was hospitalized at 2. He then came in contact with Pneumonia in the hospital while he was there. They automatically put him on Singulair, Zyrtec, Prednisone, and antibiotics to treat the pneumonia. Since that day, my son has gone though more tests than I have in my entire life. He has had asthma, sinusitis, leg cramping ( to the point he cannot walk for 2 years), IBS, Acid reflux,(they gave him laxatives for a year that made things worse and addicted to them also), stomach pain, constipation and diarrhea back and forth. He also got Erythema Mulitforme TWICE, while on this drug. All of which the doctors said could NOT be caused by Singulair. He has had several Upper GI's and CT scans. Along with Barium enemas, several hundreds of blood tests, and many many pokes and prodded that were not necessary. All since he has been on Singulair. He now has frequent bathroom trips, depression, confusion, and anger outbursts. He also has to go to the restroom every 5 minutes. He has had genital swelling, and many other aches and pains. None of which his "doctor" ever said could be a result of Singulair. I am 100% sure it was!!!! He currently has anxiety and emotional sporadic issues causing problems in school The teachers and counselors say that it is so strange because there is no TRIGGER and the outbursts are completely inconsistent. His preschool teacher and director are sure he has ADHD. Well, we had him tested and he does not have any part of it. He has no learning disability what-so-ever. So that brought me back to square one. He is in a positive loving enviroment. How could he be depressed and want to hurt everyone around him? He cannot sit still. He cries and says he is 'stupid" and "can't think" like the other boys. He has nightmares and cannot sleep alone. He is scared of everyone and everything. So, as I sit here crying, I realized that this has all been a reaction of his "medicine" Singulair. He never should have gone through all of those painful tests, only to prove they couldn't find anything. So many treatments and sound full advice speeches from his doctors. How could they be so naive and selfish in the life of my son?

When I called my pediatrician of 5 years, she told me that " parents that have children with behavioral problems will LOOK for something to blame their problems on." She also said "drug companies only put side effects on their labels to PROTECT the drug companies. (as she laughed at me) They are not always valid". Then she said "if you take you child off of Singulair you will be playing Russian Roulette in his life." Then she said that all children around 5 or 6 go though this emotional time in their lives." She told me that if I take my child off of Singulair that she would no longer be a part of his health regimen for his asthma. She told me to see a Pulmonologist for further treatment.
Who is paying who? This is my son's life???????? I decided to go with my mother-gut instinct and get him off of this medicine. No matter what. He has been a different person since. He is currently going though a lot of side effects and withdrawals (leg pain, insomnia, hic-ups, emotional distress) but every day is getting better. How can the drug companies say that this is a "wonder drug?" There are more reported side effected patients then clinical studied patients! How can a "medication" that stimulates the brain not be connected to other problems? This "medication" interferes with the bio synthesis and action of LTs and has been marketed as NOVEL medication against asthma and allergic rhinitis. Who the hell is playing God here??? The pocket books of Merck or our over PAID "doctors?" Who pays the price? Our children? Or us. Thank god I found this before it was too late. I would not be able to withstand the pain of losing my son due to their lack of scientific evidence. They are lucky I am one of the smart ones. I will not settle for less than Justice for the drug companies and their paid "doctors?" You all end up in the same place. HELL

There are 18 million people on this drug. Most of them are children. Please save a life if not your own child's life. Thank You

POLL: If you or your child have been adversely affected by Singulair could you please reply to this and let me know what ethnicity you are and skin tone. (fair, med., dark, etc.) I'm interested in the demographics of this drugs effects.
Thank you!

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.

While I am sure that Singulair has adverse effects for some children/teenagers/adults, I took Singulair for 2-3 years (until my asthma symptoms improved to the point where I didn't need to take it) while I was a kid and had no adverse side effects. Started back on Singulair in April after having severe reactions to my new puppy (I am now 21). Since then, I really haven't had any side effects at all. I agree that they should black box Singulair and possibly not prescribe it to some children/teens, but for some people (like myself), it works, and shouldn't be taken off the market completely.

I am happy I found this website to express my concerns about singulair. My husband and I are still shellshocked about how singulair turned our lives upside down. My son was on singulair for 5 years. During that time he had extreme anxiety, nightmares, stomach aches, suicidal thoughts and tendencies, difficulty in school, aggressive behavior. We were at our wits end when we sought therapy at an anxiety clinic a year ago. He never went on any antidepressants or anti anxiety pills, just behavioral therapy. He went to therapy for approximately 5 months once a week. At the time he started therapy, I happened to switch doctors for his asthma due to an asthma flare up. He went to a pulmonology specialist at CHOP. He was taken off of singulair and put on other inhaler medications. Slowly, we began to see improvement in his behavior. I was holding my breath, thinking I was imagining his improvements and hoping his symptoms would not return. My son is now 9 years old and has been off singulair for one year. His horrific symptoms are gone and he no longer needs therapy. He is a happy, active nine year old. He had a successful year in second grade last year. I never realized it could have been singulair that caused his symptoms until I heard it on the news. His symptoms were always related to "behavioral problems". It was such a heart wrenching, frustrating experience because we could not figure out why he was behaving this way. My heart goes out to all the families who have experienced devastating symptoms. I contacted merck and the FDA. I want to contact my state representative. I am looking forward to seeing the results of the FDA study. I am curious how they are obtaining their data because I was never questioned about the details of my experience.

Everyone please go to the American Lung Association home page to read the article on their "research study" into the association between montelukast and depression/suicide and write to: ****** with your experiences. I wrote a letter with my son's negative experience, stating why I thought their study was flawed - they only studied 569 children and adults (I think there are more posts of negative reactions in children on this site alone) and urging them to do a more exaustive and statistically singificant study before releasing the results. This drug is unsafe and we need to take action to get it identified as such by the medical community.

I just read the article in question ,i am not sure what on earth they think mood changes and anxiety is,but i am not surprised as the doctors do not believe us,this has been a complete uphill battle,what would prove it to them,children have died, been poisoned tortured and imprisoned in there minds,and yet they say there is no evidence,the evidence is clear when your child improves when not taking this drug,what do they need.They agree this can happen in rats,but turn a blind eye to children.This article and findings of these so called specialists makes me want to vomit.The researchers should have to take the drug for 3 years and then tell us how they feel

Has anyone experienced difficulty swallowing solid foods? My son has been on it for 2-3 years and this issue has just developed. Not sure if it has to do with the Singulair or not. He's had an Upper GI and no physical problems show up. He is 11 years old and the allergist says the mood swings are due to his age, not the medicine. He has been really down and cries at the strangest things.

I have been reading all of these posts and have another question. I hope that someone can help. My daughter, 8 years old, has been on Singulair since she was 4. She is normally a very happy girl with a wonderful disposition. For the last year or so, she has been having trouble getting herself to sleep at night. She says that she hears things in her head such as ringing or "noises". A few hours before she knows it's bedtime, she cries and when we ask her why she's crying, she can't give us a reason. We initially thought that she was crying for no reason because she didn't want to go to sleep. I remember reading about the side effects of Singulair causing mood swings, etc., but her's are not violent mood swings. Just very emotional and has a hard time coming down from the "episode". I'm at a loss...I have not talked to her doctor yet about it, but have told her that we will make an appointment this week to discuss it with him. My husband suggested that maybe it sounded like she was having a panic attack or anxiety attack. I hate to label her as that at such a young age. My mind now goes back to the side effects of Singulair and maybe this is to blame. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Concerned Mom

I have asthma that was not controlled. I coughed and wheezed constantly. I had trouble eating, because even the food passing through the esophagus was enough to cause an attack. I was in and out of the emergency room for years, and the Ambulance folks knew to arrive with epinephrine when I'd call.

I started taking Singulair sometime around 1998. I haven't had any serious problems since then with asthma, and have had ZERO side effects.

Every drug has side effects for some people. For me, Claritin causes my heart to race. I can take that or that purple circurlar inhaler thing. I had a terrible reaction to that.

For ME, Singulair works. I am not sure it should be given to children if they are having severe problems. But it certainly should NOT be removed from the market...because people like me needed it to control their asthma.

I am a parent of a 14 year old son. He has been on many meds due to having migraines, adhd, seizures, and asthma. For 3 years his ADHD meds have been switched. Now Thanks to a friend she told me about singular side effects. OH MY GOD. it blows my mind reading this stuff. He has been on singular for 3 years and never once did I think all these problems were caused by that drug. Flipping out over the smallest things, arguing with us his parents, his friends, being mean to us and a real smartass, depression, and MAJOR attitude. Getting upset over nothing at all then crying for no reason What was his Dr. thinking? Needless to say, I took the singular while she was telling me this stuff about her own son, and threw them away, I will never allow my son to take that shit again. I hope in three days like all of you say, that my son will be that loving, caring, friendly person he use to be ! Singular free is how he will be!!

I have 2 sons with asthma that have both been taken singulair (the oldest for 3 years & his brother for 2). My younger son's asthma got alot better since he was diagnosed & he was recently taken off Singulair thanks also to my husband hearing a report about the moodiness caused. When he was on it he would cry for no reason, get very irrational & seemed to think the world was against him. In just 2 weeks he is happy & cheerful and has told me he thinks it is due to being off singulair. His older brother's asthma has gotten worse over the years & I'm concerned about taking him off but he too has crazy moods. Just tonight he started a new soccer team & got crazy & suddenly didn't even want to participate in something he loves (wanted me to let him quit right then) until we argued enough he reluctantly participated. He then came home complained of a headache (which is also way too frequent) and now has been asleep for hours. Are there any alternatives to this drug? I'm a stressed out mom that doesn't deal well with these mood swings. He is normally a social butterfly & a sweet kid but lately seems more withdrawn, more irritable (especially tonight) & complaining about leg cramps in addition to these frequent headaches. I can't deal with too many more of these evenings & wonder if all these things are possible side effects. I'm glad to see my other son doing well but miss his normally sweet brother! Even his siblings think he is acting crazy :(

One month on the drug became aggressive and moody got very anxious about everything to the point of dibilatatingpanic issues. I am a 46 year old male, working full time and attending college at night.Singular has made me almost drop out in my senior year due to panic issues in class.I am now off the drug one complete week feeling better still having mild panic issues.
Does anyone know how long it takes to get out of your system?

negative -aches all over, joint pain, lack of energy and motivation, positive -nil asthma, greatly improved sinuses, less head congestion, was told this was the best drug for asthma, polyps-sinus, aspirin allergy. Have been taking singulair for two months, concerned have also noticed feelings of anger/mild depression. Am female 50yrs, breast ca 3 years ago taking femera for 8 months. Am worried whether to continue singulair aches are killing me but could be side effects of femera to scared to go off it. Want to live and have quality of live, have 13 year old, I need to be fit for parental duties/work.

I have just come across this website and I am so upset. My 10 year old daughter has been on Singulair for 8 years. Since she was 2 years old. About 3 years ago I spoke to her pediatrician about the fact that I was concerned that she had been on it for so long and about the possible long term side effects. She brushed me off and told me that there weren't any.

Over the years she has complained often of stomach aches and pains. We even had her on Miralax for a couple years because the Dr. was sure it was constipation. The last couple of years she has been complaining of leg cramps and I sort of brushed that off as "growing pains."

She is extremely emotional and has serious mood swings. I even asked her Dr. about ADD and she said it was just her personality. I am almost in tears typing this because I have no way of knowing if her actions are because of her age, her personality, or because of this medication. She has been on it for so long that I wouldn't know what her personality would be if she had never taken it.

Her asthma tends to be seasonal and she hasn't had an attack in years. I took her off the meds as soon as I read about the disturbing side effects that hit too close to home. I am upset that her Dr. never warned me about these side effects (that were not listed on the label) and didn't take my concerns seriously.

She is very small for her age and I was concerned that the medication may have stunted her growth....little did I know there were so many other dangerous side effects. I just hope and pray that she doesn't suffer any long term negative effects from this medication that I have given her, thinking I was helping her.

My 3 years old daughter was on Singulair for 8 months, that was prescribed by her Pedestrian from the Asthma clinic in Canada, Quebec. Lately, some of the symptoms of adverse effects are surfacing in her, including depression, action very emotional, constant having bad dreams (which causes tiredness), crying almost whole day in the daycare, refusing to eat and drink, refusing to join her favorite activities... Her Pedestrian told us there is no side effect on Singulair when she renewed the prescription 2 days ago. Because of my doubt about that, I started research on the web and found out that the early communication was issued by FDA. Of course, I took my daughter off from Singulair right away.

I work in the drug development clinical research field. I know that nothing the FDA or Health Canada will pursue until a lot of cases on adverse events (side effects) reported to them. Please everyone, if you or your child has had developed any side effects on this particular drug (Singulair), please report to FDA at once. It got me so upset is that this drug is constantly and widerly prescribed to children, and the Pedestrians are not caution enough to tell the parents. I definitely do not want to see other children suffer the same symptoms as my daughter had.

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.

I'm seeing some posts from parents who say their children have returned to normal after discontinuing the use of this medication. However, there seem to be a lot of diagnosed "ADHD" or "BIPOLAR" conditions. Are your children really returned to normal? Or have they been diagnosed with a psychological issue and are receiving treatment? There seems to be a connection here, even after discontinued use, especially male adolescents. Any thoughts?? The increase in cases of ADD, ADHD, AUTISM, etc has been multiplying at a very disturbing rate in the last 10 years. I'm thinking definite connection to the "new" breed of "receptor blockers". What is it triggering? Any thoughts out there? Lets post anyone with similar cases and see how many are out there.

In 2003 at the age of 31. I had been taking singulair for over 2yrs. I started experiencing muscle weakness and I got to the point I could not sit or lay down. I was extremely in a lot of pain and taking large amounts of pain medicine. It went on for several weeks. I went to the doctor because I was having muscle spams or what I thought was a ruptured disk. I had a MRI done and it didn't show anything. I was sent to a back surgeon and he checked me out and wanted me to list all my medications. I began to tell him about zyrtec and singulair. He asked me how long I had been on singulair? I told him almost 2 years. He told me to get off of it right now because it would kill me. He said the singulair was deteorating my muscles
and causing me to have muscle spasm. I had no muscle tone. He sent me to a massage therapist 3days a week for 6 weeks and I came off of the meds. The doctor told me he had at least 10 patients that had happen to them.That was a wake up call. The doctor also told me his wife was on it 6 months and started throwing up blood and took her to the ER. All because of singulair and my kids have been on it for 3 years and have not had one problem. They are 10 and 7.
My husband is a pharmacist and he had not heard anything bad about it. He filled out a card about the side effect. It only happens in 2% of people taking it.

Hi,
I wanted to post this link just to give some small consolation to our concerns about the lack of awareness THAT DOCTORS HAVE ABOUT SINGULAIR.This is a voluntary online informational site,that doctor's can join. It provides updated information on serious label changes and safety concerns on drugs.Most doctors at this point still get snail mail updates,in the paper shuffle a lot of information gets misplaced.The AMA would like to have all information come in online,eventually.The link is ******
read it and tell me if you think more can be done By the way my pediatricians office does not have online communication.Our life is forever changed because of that ! Information is playing a vital role in this drugs destructive path ,or the lack there of information.Again this is voluntary for the Doctors to sign up .In this modern day of communication how does important information not get where it is the most useful, I ask you?When drugs are making multi billion dollar profits,that would be an educated guess.I am doing another interview with CBS affiliate out of Boston on the 23rd of June,they contacted me.I hope it will reach more people who are still unaware of this drugs serious potential side effects.If any of you parents have some connection to media ,please use it to your best advantage to get this very important information out to the publicAlso so many of you ask how to help.Contact your local Senators and keep bothering them to reach out to the FDA to expedite this investigation. Make a pain in the butt out of yourself and be persistent.I will try to make reference to this site so your stories are heard. Dave and I are coming up on a year since our son passed on to our lord .Still fighting Kate and Dave M.

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 quinoline 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 that it ionizes, then it could be possible or maybe like 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.
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

I took my son off Singular a month ago, some slight improvements with the sleep and behavior problems. I voiced my concerns with my doctor twice now he looks at me like Im crazy and then he goes on the PC and says he cant find any of these side affects im talking about. My son was an appointment to see an allergist specialist.

WOW!!! I am glad I came across this website. I have twin boys that will be 7 this month. One has been on Singulair for about 3 years for allergy induced asthma and my other son has been on it for 9 months for allergies. I am taking them both off of it today. The son that is taking the medicine for 3 years has become increasingly angry and gets upset over small things. Over Memorial weekend, he lost a game he was playing on the wii and exploded. He was banging his head and then started to hit me. NEVER in my life have I seen him attack anyone. A few days later he threw rocks at his friend because he wanted the wagon. Over the past 3 years I have noticed some change in him and just took it as growing pains. He has always been a strong will child. However, over the past 3 years he has gotten worse and since he has physically attacked me and his friend, I have decided to send him to counseling. Now I firmly believe it is the Singulair.

My other son has been on it since August. He started to have anxiety within a month of taking it. His behavior has been stressed, depressed and not wanting to play with other kids. He was biting his nails to a nub, licking his hands, not talking to anyone at school and rubbing his head. I have also noticed he does like to look at the person he is talking too. Of course I thought the worse and thought he was being molested. I went to his Teacher and she has worked very hard with him, but he is still a loner. If you knew him before, he played with everyone and enjoyed life. I was told by his Ped. that he had anxiety and to have him see a shrink.

I am hoping that after taking them both off this medicine, I will see improvement.

My son is almost 9, he has been on Singulair for 3 years. Last Friday the pulmonologist took him off of it. My son has been sleep walking since about the time he started singulair, have noticed major behavior changes. He gets very angry over nothing, he is extremely sensitive, he is not the happy little boy he once was. He has horrible dreams. Over time this has gotten progressively worse. I have to say that since last Friday when he was taken off the singulair, I have noticed a huge difference. My happy little boy is coming back! I told the Pulmonologist my concerns ans could this be side effects and he replied "YES", Also, he feels that my son has outgrown his asthma which is wonderful. I feel so horrible for all these children and families going through this. Parents, remember you are your child's best advocate. don't let the children suffer.

In September of 2007 my then 13 year old daughter was put on Singular for mild asthma. At the time she was a straight A student, vice president of our school and a popular girl who's guidance counselor described as "the glue of her grade" because she was so well liked. In November she told me that she was struggling with advanced Latin and Science. She asked to drop down to on grade Latin so we did. In December her science teacher notified us that she had a C average. She told me that she thought she had ADD/ADHD and she couldn't keep up. At the same time she was having a lot of problems with friends at school and we just attributed it to being 14. 3 weeks ago we discovered that she is significantly behind in English and it was then that she told me that she is been having horrific night mares. She said that they usually involve someone killing her or her killing herself. She said that they were so graphic that she couldn't repeat it out loud. She also said that she would feel waves of anxiety that would come over her at school and she would act "witchy" to the kids in her class for no real reason. She said that sometimes when she is trying to do her homework she will read the same passage for 2 hours and still have no idea what it's about. She also said that the suicidal thoughts from her sleep happened during they day and that she had thoughts of her harming herself. Fortunately her pulminologist told us that this may be caused by singular and we immediately took her off of it which was 2 weeks ago. She has only had 1 "bad dream" not even a nightmare since. She had one anxiety attack 3 days after she was off it and she describes her moods as the "cloud lifting....slowly". Now, we have to pick up the pieces. Her grades have suffered, her friendships have suffered and most of all her self esteem is very low. I'm grateful that we found out the cause but I feel as if my daughter lost a year of her life and I worry that because Merck won't admit there are side effects we can't find out how long it remains in their system. Is anyone else concerned about the long term affect and has anyone pursued a class action suit to try to get this drug tested properly?

My son is almost 6 yrs old. He has been taking Singular for approx 3 years, in addition to Claritin and Nasonex. This is all for his allergy to mold. His doctor started him on these meds after a 6 month episode with sinus infections leading to asthma-like symptoms. We have not noticed anything unusual about his behavior until approx 3 months ago. He started waking up every night (2-3 hours after going to bed) with bad dreams. At first he would not fully awaken and fall back asleep immediately. After a month or so of this happening most nights, he had two nights in a row where he woke up screaming and was inconsolable for about 30 minutes. We initially thought it was night terrors, but he was not scared or fearful, he was just upset/angry. He would hit the bed repeatedly and yell. He didn't know what he was upset about but would talk about how he thought we hated him, he was dumb, etc. After about 30 min he would 'snap out of it' and return to his normal self and go back to sleep easily.
At first we thought these were night terror brought on by a recent fever, but he had another episode last night. He has also been falling apart at the littlest things and getting quite violent (for a 6 yr old). He was sent to his room yesterday evening because he was complaining about the dinner his mom made (lots of complaining these days..). He had a total melt down an started throwing things and hitting the door so hard he put a hole in it.
Some of this behavior I would chalk up to normal kid stuff, new baby brother, etc. But I am suspicious about the negative thoughts, bad dreams, and instant melt downs... I stopped giving him Singular today and we will see what happens. God bless you all as we figure these things out...

My daughter has been off of Singulair for about 6 weeks now and is still having "explosive" reactions to minor issues. My daughter's personality is better - no more dark thoughts, etc, but the anxiety/aggressiveness is still hanging on. Anyone having similar issues? We are also still dealing with the OCD behaviors as well. She is 4 and I really think her brain chemistry is still altered. At what point should I recognize that this new child may be my new reality? I would really appreciate any thoughts from those of you that have been off for more than 6 weeks. Are you back to 100%?

In response to dtrzaski post Im am sending out this question to everyone. We know there have been stool/stomach/weight issues. Are there any other children that it has been discovered to have high cholesterol. My son was discovered to have high cholesterol at around 3yrs old, apprx 6 months after starting Singulair (regardless of a very healthy diet lots of fruit and veggies!) Any thoughts out there?

My son, Wilson, is a bright, easy-going, athletic 12 year old who has a history of asthma and allergies. After several asthmatic episodes from age one year to about four, he was prescribed Singulair. The asthma triggers seemed to be change of season or congestion from a cold, but not from exercise or physical exertion. As I recall, his asthmatic episodes seemed to decrease after he was on 5-10 mg of Singulair, and even more so with each passing year. Over the years, of my three sons, Wilson was the one to catch any virus that came around and missed more school time than both of his brothers combined. Often, he was the only one to get sick from a virus, which never passed to anyone else in the family.
About five years ago, Wilson started complaining of stomach aches. He was tested and was prescribed Prevacid on and off since then with varying success. In the last couple of years, headaches would come and go. He was re-tested for allergies and blood work with no conclusive results. About 2-3 years ago he would complain that he “felt funny…like he needed to do something.” Further conversations revealed that he was expressing anxiety. He’s a good student, has lots of friends at school, and is popular among his sports team mates. Occasionally, a teacher here and there over the last couple of years would note that he did not participate enough in class, or did not appear to be attentive. We thought perhaps he is shy. Still his good behavior, agreeable personality and diligence otherwise earned him good grades overall. He loves school and was very unhappy having to stay home when he was sick.
This past winter, he seemed to catch a virus about once every month and a half which caused him to miss 2-3 days of school. Headaches and stomach aches were common with each illness (sometimes nausea), and sometimes these same symptoms when he was not ill. He would only complain when they were prolonged or significant. Trips to the doctor did not result in anything conclusive. Again, Wilson was only too happy once he returned to school.
He claims that sometimes in school he feels like he’s in a fog and has difficulty concentrating. He gets plenty of sleep and sometimes sleeps up to ten hours during the weekend. We attributed it to adolescence and a busy schedule. He claims that this year is the easiest for him at school, and his social life with his friends is very active. His friends’ parents like him and find him to be an agreeable child. Other adults mistake his sometime mumbling answers and lack of eye contact rude. We concluded that he is just shy. He is the most hyper of his brothers, and has difficulty sitting still and constantly exclaims that he’s bored. We chalked it up to being an active boy. His grades are good in school and we never get complaints about bad behavior.
The last illness started a week ago, and he’s still out of school. The doctor said he had no significant allergy symptoms, other bacterial infections, and his blood work all returned with normal results for white blood counts, liver and kidney functioning and anemia. He can’t return to school because of his constant headaches (which cause pain in different parts of his head), nausea, constant stomach aches, no matter what he eats, and feelings of anxiety, mostly in the evening hours. He’s also complaining of dizziness, leg cramps and other muscle soreness. The notable difference in this illness is the anxiety. My husband and I take turns staying home with him, but if we left him alone for a half an hour at a time while the other was in route picking up a sibling, he became very anxious. In the past, he seemed to enjoy some alone time at home so he could play his computer games. He also becomes easily dizzy with shooting pains in his muscles. The doctor said that viruses can manifest themselves in later stages in the form of sore muscles. However, he was concerned about Wilson’s feelings of anxiety. The anxiety had not been as prevalent in prior illnesses. I finally signed onto the internet reading all the stories about other parent’s observations of their children on Singulair. My husband cautioned me about “internet diagnosing” with symptoms and stories that can be easily taken out of context in hope of self-diagnosis. I’ve always thought that Wilson’s doctors have had good judgment. Both my primary physician and allergist don’t think that Singulair has caused these symptoms, but agreed to take him off as long as we monitored any effect on his asthma.
I don’t know what to think. I want the cause of these problems to be the Singulair, because it’s an easy answer. Today will be the first day he’s off the medication. He probably won’t go to school again tomorrow. We’ll wait and see what happens…

Am a forty-two year old female, have been on singulair approximately 3 years, decided to stop taking it abruptly because of constant leg cramps and difficulty sleeping. THAT was when my trouble really started, the week after abruptly stopping. Crying for no reason, felt impending sense of doom....I think things will get better, I wish a would have weened myself off slowly.

In response to all the brain research theories, I just wanted to say that when my son (at age 6) was on Singulair there was a noticeable relationship between food and mood. Although his weight was not affected noticeably he would almost predictably have meltdowns if he skipped a snack or we had dinner late. And I remember that I would do almost anything, including spoon feeding him like a baby, in the morning, knowing that, after a few bites he would become 100x more manageable.

I mention this because even though one could argue that this phenomenon happens with many kids and adults it really was sharply apparent in my son - and of course his behavior was more extreme. Like the mother who mentioned a hypoglycemic-like reaction, I felt that my son's explosive behavior and intolerance at these times quickly improved after eating.

By the way, he has been off more than a year now and does not have this problem any more. Also he is much less lethargic.

Hello to everyone, I just came home from a parent teacher conference for my son who is 7 yrs. old, and heard the same old thing, "he is restless, impulsive and has a short attention span". He has been taking Singulair for about 3 yrs.. Since he has started school I have had these complaints and have also been told he displays symptoms of ADHD, which ironically has been for the last 3 years. Like any parent, I question" if I am doing something wrong with my parenting, is his diet good, etc. etc.", I am also a nurse, I realize that medications are needed and beneficial in some circumstances, however I firmly believe and was taught in nursing school that medication is last resort. That being said, I have been very adament about NOT giving my son ADHD medication after doing alot of research on the different meds and their side effects. So, we started him on all natural vitamins, changed his diet some ( kids got to have candy once in a while) and started a more structured routine( the best we can since we both work) and also enrolled him in Sylvan. The teacher says there is a 50% improvement but he is still impulsive and still does not pay attention like he "COULD", again suggesting he needs ADHD meds. I came home in tears and started to do more research online to see what else can I do besides putting him on psych meds?....Then I came accross this site, I just want to cry after reading all these posts. I wonder, could this be his problem, the Singulair?.. About a year ago he use to get up in the middle of the night, 5 out of 7 complaining of nightmares, hearing things at times, headaches, decreased appetite, stomach upset, all AT TIMES, not all the time so I never thought alot about side effects of Singulair. When the school started complaining I did look at side effects of Singulair and seen HYPERACTIVITY and mentioned it to his pediatrician and she shrugged it off saying she never heard of it being a problem. She's a great MD so I listened to her because his asthma was bad when he was younger and it is now under control. But then I think maybe he is outgrowing the asthma. I am afraid to stop Singulair and him have breathing problems again but then I can't help this strong feeling in my heart that says this may have been his problem with everything else all along. We are going to stop the Singulair tonight and see what happens. If anyone else has a child with asthma any suggestions for alternative treatment would be appreciated. I already know what's out there but sometimes it's nice to hear from another parent going through similar situs. Thanks for reading, Bobbie

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.

My 9 year old son was on Singulair for about 4 weeks. His whole personality changed. He cried all the time, he would not sleep alone, he had headaches, dizziness, tummy aches and horrible nightmares. His whole bodyy broke out in a rash and even now after 2 months of taking him off he is still covered in a rash. He was so sad all the time and so irritated. He would yell at us and was so angry all the time. He still is not back to himself. I see where people say their kids are back to their old selfs. I know my son is better but he still is having a hard time focusing in school and crys easily. He seems as though he is not the same child. I wonder if these side effects can cause permanent damage in some way. This is all so scarey. Drs. need to talk and help these children, NOW

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 son is 10 ½, and had been on Singulair for almost 6years to treat his well controlled asthma and allergies. We have had behavior problems with him for years, but it seems to have gotten worse this school year, when his grades (he is in the gifted program at school) went down the tubes. Our family has been to counseling, where it was suggested we put him on ADHD meds. We resisted, but things had reached the point that I was ready to give the NEW meds a try. ARGH!!!!! Then my sister sent me a link for a story about the teenage boy who committed suicide. This was several weeks before the Singulair/suicide stories were in the news. I did some research, and I started reading these posts. It was like I was reading descriptions of my son!! I talked to several pharmacists and none of them knew of any behavior problems attributed to taking Singulair. Talked to his pediatric pulmonary doc, he knew of no connection, but said to try taking him off. He thought the allergy/asthma would be OK since he also uses an inhaled steroid every day. Well........... I thought I could see a difference in 4 or 5 days, my husband thought I was wishful thinking! But, since then everyone in his life agrees, he is a different kid! No moodiness, no unexplained anger, more on task, sleeping better. I could go on and on. There is no doubt in my mind, the differences started when he stopped taking the Singulair.

I wrote an earlier post but I am now reading alot of your posts where you say your child experienced FEAR on Singulair. That is so interesting. When my son was on it for around 3 years he would never sleep alone in his own bed and he would have episodes every night that would last up to 3 hours at bed time because I would try to get him to sleep in his own bed, even at 8 years old. I thought he was possessed!!!! He would scream and fight me and I would literally have to hold him down to get him to stay in bed. It was horrible. I'm not sure how a hullicination would be described but maybe that was part of it. All I know is that he turned into a totally different child. It was something out of a horror movie. I eventually gave up and let him sleep in our bed cause it was exhausting. He would just make blood curdling screams and the terror in his eyes was horrific. Then the next morning he would be fine like nothing had ever happened.
Now that he is off of Singulair he will sleep in his own bed with the light off all night. It was an amazing turn around. He also told me he's not scarred anymore.. Who knew????? Has anyone else experienced anything like that with their child????

has anyone took their child off of singular for more than 2 weeks and has the child had any breathing issues since being off?

i am so happy to hear all of these stories of recovery. i discovered my son's singulair side effects in march 2007, after 3 years of use. i can tell you from our experience that the most significant recovery comes within 3 weeks. after the 3 weeks, the more subtle improvements continued to occur for months and months after. without the effects of singulair, they experience life in a whole new way. my son's experiened 3 years of undetected side effects which included: irritability, FEAR, stomach / leg pains, poor appetite, difficulty with focusing / comprehension, restlessness and nightmares. the last 2 months on the 5mg dosage, he also experienced a facial tic, dilated pupils and hallucinations along with an increased in intensity of all the above. i thank god everyday for finding this website and removing my child from singulair.

My son is off singulair for two weeks now and is showing improvements. He was on it for 7 years and at the beginning we blamed it on steriods, even though his dose was low. When he went off the steroids, the behavior didn't stop. I questioned the allerist if the singulair could be doing it, but was told no, it doesn't have those side effects. I don't blame the doctors because they weren't given the info. He was extremely emotional, cried for no reason, had no confidence, didn't like himself. We on more than one occasion have told his older sister that when he hits his teenage years we would have to watch him for suicide, as his reaction to problems was sooo out of whack! He was on motrin for headaches 4-5 days a week(blamed it on sinusses). Unexplained stomachaches. These symptoms came on over years, not right away. I have always thought that the steroids had done damage because he took them when he was so young. Until the news reports hit, and I started reading other people's stories and doing the "OMG, that's my kid!", I never put the problems on singulair. I was still skeptical, but took him off. His symptoms immediately got 100x's worse for a week. But funny thing is, his headaches are gone, his stomachaches are gone and he seems much less emotional. The strangest thing is, EVERY night, he comes in to kiss us good night 7 or 8 times, and sometimes by the 7th time he is crying and can't explain why. This has been going on for YEARS, EVERYNIGHT, never a break. It stopped! Just stopped cold 7 days ago. Comes in once, says goodnight, leaves and falls asleep. I know this isn't a coincidence. After years of wondering what's wrong with my kid, now I feel like I've been poisoning my him for 7 years. I'm not skeptical anymore.

Sorry guys. The post below is mine and I left out a critical part of the entry. My three year old daughter was put on Allegra (along with the Singulair and Nasonex) in mid-March which is when her sleeping patterns changed. I've researched the side-effects of Allegra and I can't find sleeplessness anywhere. Therefore, maybe it's the combination of the Singulair and Allegra causing the problem. Does anyone else have a small child on this combination of meds. that is experiencing similar problems?

I would be interested to know how many of those who took Singulair needed to take antibiotics more frequently than they did before they took Singulair. I'll see the response then I will tell you why if it turns out that is a predictable side effect.

UPDATE:It is now a week since my 6 yr old son stopped taking singulair. My happy boy is back! He has now had a second day in a row with positive reports from school. These are the first 2 positive days of the entire school year!!! Its no mystery anymore! I am 100% positive it was the Singulair he was on. It may work for some people with no side effects and thats great for them. But for those parents out there that had the slightest doubt I am telling you from experience to go with your gut! Speak to your Dr for alternatives and get back your happy children!

My 6 year old daughter has been off the Singulair for 5 days, after being on it for like 4 years. I have noticed some big changes for the positive... but she is still yelling at me when I have to get her up for school...and ight before bed. She is falling asleep a little better, and waking up less. But this screaming is so bad. I need to videotape it so people will believe me..as to how bad it is! Anyone else have some side effects still left, or did the all go away right away?

I have a 10 year old daughter who has been on Singulair for 3 years for allergies. The medication worked great and has not had ANY problems with allergies at all. I don't know exactly when her behavior started to change. It was so gradual. She became irritable and easily upset but I thought it had to do with hormones. In January 08 she began complaining of stomach problems and the doctor thought maybe reflux. We tried medicine for that but it did not help for long. Then in March 08 it really it hard. She began to have leg cramps often, which I thought were growing pains and the mood swings were terrible. She began to have tantrums that were so bad they were like night terrors but she was awake. She would talk of dying and hurting something or breaking something. She would lye on the floor and pound away uncontrollably. She would cry help me help me why am I feeling like this. She states she doesn't know why she does this and does not feel normal. I was researching allergies this past weekend and came across the Singulair problems. I had no idea about them. I immediately stopped the medicine and today is the 3rd day without it. I have seen improvement already. I was really encouraged because of her unusually great mood. However, she had a crying episode
tonight. I know it takes time to get out of the system. I am hoping within a few more days she will be free of this terrible medicine. Patients should definitely be warned of possible side effects. Not everyone may react in this terrible way but from reading so many forums there are a tremendous amount of people who do, children and adults.

My son is 10 years old and has been on 5 mg. singulair for 3 years. He has been getting frequent headaches,and is in the bathtub right now screaming with one! Also alot of depression.I just came upon this website accidently ,by searching the internet for what might be causing such headaches in a child. I was shocked at all of these symptoms! I am not going to give him any more singulair.But what is everyone doing to replace it and deal with their kids asthma problems? My son has had so may behavioral issues and being so unreasonable and always thinks were picking on him.To extremes! Very hars to deal with,constantly! TC

I would like to share this information with everyone. First, I would like to caution all that it does not prove anything regarding the negative side effect of Singulair but it does suggest that there might (only might) be a physiological cause for any side effect that could be attributed to brain function.

A Chinese team has been studying the receptor (Cysteinyl leukotrienes receptor 1) that is targeted by Singulair and is responsible for the method of action that makes Singulair successful. Here is one of their studies.

1: Neurosci Lett. 2004 Jun 17;363(3):247-51. Links
Expression of cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1 in human traumatic brain injury and brain tumors.Zhang WP, Hu H, Zhang L, Ding W, Yao HT, Chen KD, Sheng WW, Chen Z, Wei EQ.
Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, 353, Yan An Road, Hangzhou 310031, PR China.

Cysteinyl leukotrienes (CysLTs) are potent proinflammatory mediators. CysLT receptor 1 (CysLT(1)) is one of the two CysLT receptors that has been cloned. Although the expression of CysLT(1) in the brain has been demonstrated by Northern blot and RT-PCR analyses, the location of CysLT(1) in the brain remains unknown. The objective of this study was to examine the distribution of CysLT(1) by immunohistochemical analysis in human brains with traumatic injury or tumors. CysLT(1) was expressed intensely in the microvascular endothelial cells in both normal and abnormal conditions. At 8 days after traumatic injury, microvascular regeneration was found and all of the endothelial cells highly expressed CysLT(1). In gray and white matters of the normal regions of the brain, CysLT(1) was expressed weekly or not at all. However, the CysLT(1) expression increased in the neuron- and glial-appearing cells in gray and white matters after traumatic brain injury. CysLT(1) was also detected in astrocytoma, ganglioglioma and metastatic adenocarcinoma, and the expression in the neuron- and glial-appearing cells around brain tumors increased robustly.

PMID: 15182953

Here is the relevant part of the study.

"Although the expression of CysLT(1) in the brain has been demonstrated by Northern blot and RT-PCR analyses, the location of CysLT(1) in the brain remains unknown."

That sentence says that these scientists believe that CysLT1 exists in the brain but they don't know what the location in the brain is.

It is logical to assume that if a receptor exists in any part of the body that it has a function in other words it does something or tells some other part of the body to do something. So we don't know what part of the brain or what the receptor does in the brain or what the effect on the body is if the receptor does not do it's job.

We do know that Singular (montelukast, Cysteinyl leukotriene receptor 1 antagonist) blocks this particular receptor so if the receptor exists in the brain that it COULD BE POSSIBLE that Singular prevents this receptor in the brain from doing it's job whatever that is.

I know that it is difficult to argue with doctors. This drug has been around a long time. It would be difficult to understand why we are just learning about problems after so long a period of time. I can see from all of these responses that these problems are very real. Of course, we have no idea if Singulair is related or not. But if you need something supportive to show that it is not impossible for them to be related even though there is no proof that they are related, you could print this out and discuss it with your doctor.

This isn't proof of anything but at least it might be a clue.

Here is some perspective for you all. I take Singulair and do well on it and in ACTUAL studies it has one of the safest safety records. Understand that post marketing reporting does not mean there is a correlation between the event and the product. Throughout the life of a drug the companies must disclose any report of side effects reported to them REGARDLESS of causality. A popular antihistamine that is OVER THE COUNTER also has suicidal thinking/behavior listed in its post marketing section. However, just because patients who had reported having these thoughts while taking the product doesn't mean it was a result of the product! Maybe they had a depressive personality and were also on multiple other medicines to treat that. You must look at the "Adverse Reactions, Warnings and Precautions" sections of package inserts to see the side effects that were actually seen in studies. You can die from ulcers derived from over use of aspirin or ibuprofen. Decongestants can throw off your blood pressure and these events are documented in actual studies! Listen to your bodies when taking any med. If you feel differently report it to your doctor.

These are all drugs people, there are potential side effects. There are also side effects to those "natural" over the counter remedies that are not nearly as regulated by the FDA or studies by the drug companies.

To anyone out there who has experienced side effects to singulair timed to when you started it, talk to your doctor, stop taking it and see if it goes away. Same advice for any product prescription or over the counter medicine. Side effects can be a combination of many factors (what other meds are you taking?) But understand for many people this product is the safest and most effective treatment for them. The FDA and Merck are reviewing all information to see if there is any correlation to the reporting. But singulair been around for about 10 years and prescibed to billions of people and is known to be one of the safer medicines out there overall.

In between the legitimate posts on this site I get the sense there is a lot of ambulance chasing going on. People looking to cash in on this big drug companies. We want drugs, we want them cheap and with no side effects which is not a reality. Keep stepping up the regulation and make the companies hire more lawers to protect themselves and jump through even more hoops and see what happens to the price and access to new meds. Even better, see how regulation has impacted the development of new medicines around the world (here's a tip, it will dramatically decrease). Drug companies certainly aren't perfect but which industry is?

Please, when taking any medicine over the counter, prescription or herbal supplement listen to your bodies to see if the potential benefits of the product outway the risks or side effects. Report any changes to your doctor.

My grandson was put on singulair when he was 2 years old due to severe asthma. He fell out a 2 story window at 2 years old. His behavior became more and more aggressive as time went on. At 3 years old, he rode his bike toward a car and said he wanted to know what it feels like to be dead. At 4 years old he tried to plug a broken cord into an out let to see if he could get electricuted and die. He has obviously been to counceling and diagnosed with ADHD and on more medication for that.
Let me add that his father was shot and killed, and his mother was incarcerated twice for over a year each time. He has lived with me since he was 8 months old. He has been through a lot in his young age, so most of it has the potential to be explained away by this.
However, if there is any chance that singulair has caused or increased any of his problems, you can bet I will take him off it to see if there is any improvement.
I'm a nurse, so I know that there are side effects with all medications, and that some people encounter the side effects and others don't. I don't think that singulair is a bad choice for everyone, in fact, it has been proven to be very effective, and as long as there are no noted side effects, or possible side effects. why would you worry. If there are questionable side effects-you certainly can't ignore them! The only true way to find out if your childs problems are due to singulair is to try to take it away-maybe only temporarily.
My instinct tells me to pull it-if there is no change in behavior with him off the medication, I'll consider putting him back on it if necessary for his asthma.

My son started Singulair when he was 5 for asthma. He is now 7. We have noticed that he has went from a happy go lucky boy to very sad and depressed at times. He complains of headaches, stomach aches, leg aches, and cries very easily. He has lost his confidence at times and low self esteem. We never saw this behavior before taking this medicine. He has always loved to play sports and now is afraid of getting hurt. After reading these posts, I am taking my son off this medication. He has even complained that he cannot shut off his brain at night when he goes to sleep. We have also noticed him sleep walking. He has had to get glasses for farsightedness and complains that at times he feels dizzy. His breath smells awful despite he has brushed and flossed teeth. He also was very social and we noticed that he has started acting shy when he talks to people and making no eye contact. We have worked through the behaviors with prayer and counseling, but still battle it. I am wondering if he is having reactions to this medication. I am stopping it tonight. I want my happy-go-lucky little boy back. I will repost if I notice a difference. HJ