Singulair and drug reps

I have come to the conclusion that our pediatricians, allergists and various other doctors, have been brainwashed by the drug reps,possibly even bribed. My friend took her son off of Singulair almost a month ago when I told her about all of this. He already suffers from a learning disability, but she feels that his ability has improved along with his disposition and complaints of various aches and pains. She took him for his usual appointment at his allergist and told him what she had done and why and he literally YELLED at her, calling her a fool and demanded that she put him back on it. She stood her ground and refused and now is under the impression that her son will be dismissed as a patient from that practice. That won't be a problem. From what I read and what I hear, a lot of doctors are dismissing the whole deal. They can't be bothered with finding out for themselves, what the truth really is. No, they might miss out on the "perks" from the drug reps, like free samples of the deadly drug, or free pens, or a chance at a vacation in the Bahamas, and the list goes on. The drug reps are a hazard. They lack education on the drugs that they are "dealing", and if they HAVE been educated and are still promoting it,
they are no better than the crack dealers in the alley.

I discovered this site last Wednesday morning - without taking the time to list all of the grief I felt reading through the pediatric postings, I will briefly note my 4 year old daughter has been on Singulair for 2 years now. What I now realize is all the behavior issues, night screaming, etc. are so easily dismissed as stages of a toddler. She has suffered (as well as our family) every symptom and behavior listed by parents on this site with the exception of leg cramps.

Our entire family can see the dramatic results since taking her last pill last Tuesday night. The melt downs and tantrums are all but over, she even commented "hey, I listened right away" on the second day without Singulair. She is still having night terrors - I call them that because they are in no way a dream or nightmare, but rather agonizing moments that break our hearts to hear. I hope those will soon go away as well so her sleep pattern results in a restful night.

Am I angry that we have all suffered for 2 years only to find we have been basically poisoning her? Am I angry that for the 2 years her dad and I have sunk pretty low, feeling inadequate as a parent to teach and discipline our child? Am I angry that after 20 years of marriage, raising a great 16 year old in the midst of all this, we were to the point of the ADD, bipolar, etc. theory that would have been misdiagnosed? Heck no, we are all so thankful to have come across this site and are so giddy and excited to be happy again.

What I am angry about is this - when I called our pediatrician last Wednesday and relayed what I had seen on the Merck website for side effects added in recent months she had not heard this information and asked where I saw it. At that point I had not seen this site. I asked her how is it the well dressed pharmaceutical reps come in with doughnuts, exotic trips, etc. to market a drug with "ABC" treatments and "XYZ" side effects, continue to market the drug and never update the doctors when original selling points are altered - ie; new side effects.

The FDA website is troubling for two reasons: Merck is in charge of their own investigation regarding recent complaints and the FDA expects this to take 9 months. Gee, who gets to investigate themself? Secondly, in February the site notes the FDA and Merck are trying to find the best way to communicate the concerns being investigated to prescribes and patients. HELLO - we live in a world of real time, instant communication methods, two examples being the United States Postal Service and an internet connection.

Today is April 30 - a full two months after "trying to decide how to pass this information on" and my doctor, nor my pharmacist have received any information. Apparantly since we missed the story and coverage on Dateline we are out of luck.

I plan to start from ground zero to get our voices heard to change the way, or the law if you will, to implement an immediate communication link between the FDA and prescribes when an investigation such as this has been initiated. I realize Singulair has most likely benefited more humans than it has destroyed while on the drug and the FDA would have to clearly not communicate "panic". However, when a drug is used for pediatric treatments we need information quickly to assess on behalf of our children. In my case, since my daughter had been on the drug since 2 years old, I do not know what her "normal behavior" should be as that is the age they start to develop and show personality. Additionally, when enclosed prescribing information is updated with a prescription -MARK IT IN RED, "UPDATED INFORMATION". I read every ounce of information that accompanies a new prescription for any family member. I would NOT, however read the information every 30 days for an ongoing, long term prescription over the course of 2 years.

I am looking for anyone that may have started contact with a congressional representative or otherwise to change the communication to our doctors. Please note - I am in no way interested in any legal action regarding Singulair and our nightmare. We are moving forward and do not wish to live the nightmare one moment more. I simply want to see our doctors and pharmacists have vital information as it happens.

Thank you to all for sharing your experiences - I truly believe it is changing lives and making a difference. I am personally telling everyone I know about what is happening with our child and all of yours. Andy by the way, by telling one of my long time friends our amazing discovery, she realized she had been suffering from depression for some time and chalked it up to various things going on in her life. She had her last Singulair last week and feels tremendous! So keep the word going!

Concerned Citizen; I just went to Singulair.com and the website is quite good. Any practitioner would know to look at the product PI which is right there and the pharmacokinetics section tells you how it works. Put your glasses on.

I talked to my childs Dr today and she had no idea about all the problems with Singular but she did recommend that I take him off of it for a couple of months just to see if it helps with some of his symtoms or all of them.. But I also find it very discomforting that drug reps that promote these drugs to dr offices usually have no pharmacutical background at all that all they do is go tell the drs what they were told about the drug.. I think there needs to be guidelines in place for drug reps to have some sort of pharmacutical knowledge and background before taking these drugs to drs to get them to give it to us as adults and more for our childern something needs to be done. How many people have to be hurt before they take notice...
My thoughts a prayers go out to everyone who is dealing with this nightmare if you all are having as much problems with your children as I am we and mostly our children need all the prayers they can get.....

A British study suggests that Singulair should be studied for possible psychiatric adverse drugs reactions in children. I don't have this access to this journal so I have to try to find it. I will get back to you on what it says specifically.

BMC Clin Pharmacol. 2008 Mar 17;8(1):1 Links
Individual case safety reports in children in commonly used drug groups - signal detection.Brunlof G, Tukukino C, Wallerstedt SM.
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Due to few paediatric drug safety studies, knowledge on risks of drug treatment in children is limited. The knowledge needs to be increased to make proper risk-benefit analyses possible when treating paediatric patients with drugs. The aim of the present study was to investigate drug groups commonly used in children concerning type and frequency of individual case safety reports in children. METHODS: Number and type of individual case safety reports in the 30 groups of drugs (5th level ATC-code) most sold (number of defined daily doses) in outpatient treatment to children (<5 years old and experiencing psychiatric adverse drug reactions. CONCLUSION: The number of individual case safety reports per million defined daily doses varies in different groups of drugs. A possible signal for montelukast and psychiatric adverse drug reactions was found, which should be further explored.

PMID: 18366638

The key sentence is:

A POSSIBLE SIGNAL FOR MONTELUKAST (SINGULAIR) AND PSYCHIATRIC ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS WAS FOUND, WHICH SHOULD BE FURTHER EXPLORED.

I have already posted on Friday about my granddaughter. But I want to say that with all of the stories about Singulair being so similar and so heartbreaking that organization is the key. Merck and the FDA are so closely allied that the truth may never come out in scientific terms.I an only hope that with the deaths that have occurred and forced this out into the open that parents and children who have been so scammed and victimized will have a voice. Nothing is worse than harming a child and these companies knew about these side effects(by their own admission) but marketed them to the doctors and the public anyway. How is it that a few doctors knew the dangers and others didn't? That's bizarre, unless most doctors get rewards from the drug reps for prescribing this drug. Did the reps tell them , "Oh it works great on allergies but turns your 9 year-old into a sad, depressed, suicidal and bipolar child?" Even if they didn't there's enough knowledge out there given to doctors at conferences, journals, etc to inform them. That's their job. I am writing to the governor, my congressman, my Senator every day until they hold hearings on what us parents and our poor children have been through with this drug. Please do the same.It may fall on deaf ears but it's a small price to pay for the damage this drug has done.

As a pediatrician I write for singulair every day.
The medication is for allergies.
Allergies cause adenoidal swelling, which cause sleep disturbances which makes the child tired the next day with makes him over weight, less attentive, hyper and eventually act out.
This in turn makes the child experience parental, peers and teachers criticism/ abuse, with leads to the child feel inadequate, embarrassed, frustrated and eventually depressed and suicidal.

Yes, singulair does cause behavioral change but they appear within the first couple of peels, the rest is due to allergies, lack of medical care, i.e. sleep, singulair, and zyrtec deficiency.
Allergy shots cause 4 times the incidence of suicidally than singulair, and Ritalin 10 times more.
They say in hebrew "once a stone is thrown into a well, thousands of smart people won't find it".
Check it, it's true.

Wow, i just happened to see on the news that singuilar has these side effects. As i write this i can't stop from crying. My 8 year old son has been on sigular for a year and a half now. He has had fits if rage, feelings of wanting to die, leg pain, stomacher pain, almost every symptom others have had. I would stay up crying at night trying to figure out what was wrong with him or me as a parent. Shame on the doctors who should of known better. I went to his doctors and told them about his behavior and outburst and physical complaints. I was told it;s a phase he going through. My son would tell me his legs hurt when he walked, well i thought it was gowning pains like the doctors said. I am so glad i found this web page. I now know for sure it is the medication. I will now search for a better way to treat his asthma and allergy's. I hope and pray that others will find this web page and know there isn't anything wrong with us or our children, however there is certainly something wrong with our doctors who should of seen the symptoms and told us what it could of been.

My doc put me on Singulair a few years ago and I quit taking it after realizing it was causing horrible pain in the muscles of my back and down my legs. Nothing seemed to make it go away either. Then she put me on Advair which made me feel like I was loosing my mind plus other bad side effects so I quit that drug too. So recently she asked me to try Singulair again. I said no but she talked me into trying it again because she had never heard of those side effects. I am now two weeks into it and have been experiencing different side effects this time. And worse. Migraine for 3 days now, disturbing dreams, abnormal uterine bleeding, abdominal cramps, sleepyness, and irritability.
I thank you all for sharing - it has helped me make up my mind and I will direct my doc to this site so she will know the truth - not what she hears from the drug reps!