Singulair and friends at school

My son, now 10...has been on singular off and on, since I don't' know how long...today was the second time he was intentionally hurting his cat. He has told me time and time again about visions while he was awake, violent ones, he argues with anyone and everyone. He has no friends at school. Last year I took him off all his medications to see why his behavior was so drastic, he got so calm, it was like a new boy, but then when he started back to public school...he had to be put back on them again, and again with the singular...
If it was not for this site..I would think my son was sick mentally. But after this...he will see his doctor tomorrow and no more singular...
When I took him off all the meds I told his doctor I was really worried about his behavior and they said it will be okay...he went right back to just out of control. Could not sleep, concentrate at school or at home. He is so smart and he is failing school..not because he is slow, but they kept saying he was add...but when I home schooled him and took him off his meds...he was so great, obdient..not perfect by no means, but just a normal boy...
I hear him right now, in the other room, fighting imaginary people...he seems to go go go..and with no sleep...the dreams in the day time I just thought were his imagination...but now that i hear about other children like him...they are to him real..just like he tells me..he also always tells me how mad he stays..he says all the time I am just angry mom, and I would say at what..he just says everything...
Thank God for this site....now i know..it is not in his head, it is just like I told his doctor...it is his medication..now I know just the one it is..
THank you all..
God Bless all the others here suffering with the same problems...it is just shocking that we as parents and patients, even after telling the doctors, are right...I feel vindicated...I will be printing this off and taking it with us to the doctors...

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, 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…

I have been on Singulair for nine years and I thank Merck for discovering and manufacturing it. I also thank my doctor for prescribing it to me. I have my life back! I had asthma so bad I was on high dose inhaled steroids and Albuterol. I had a nebulizer on my kitchen table and a drawer full of Albuterol in my refrigerator. Like clock work I would wake up wheezing and gasping for air and have to administer myself a treatment at 4 am every morning. I would try to exercise and I would wheeze and cough. I then went on Singulair and my nebulizer has been in the basement for at least 9 years, I have the drawer back in my refrigerator too. I exercise now and even ran my first race last summer without needing an inhaler. Thank God for Singulair. I am not going to die from my asthma.

There are so few choices to treat asthma and allergies and all the medications have problems like an FDA black box warning for increased death on Salmeterol(I stopped taking that) which is in Advair and emotional disturbances with steroids and increased suicide risk with Zyrtec which is now over the counter.

I do feel sorry for Cody's parents. It must be tragic to lose a child. My heart does go out to them. However looking rationally at this story, there seems to be a whole side missing. The news story did not mention anything about Cody's past history on the news. Did he ever have signs of depression? Was there an interview with his doctor? Was he having problems with friends at school? Was he into any drugs or adolescent games? Teenage boys also have the highest rate of suicide, medicines aside.

With all due respect, I never saw any of Cody’s friends or teachers be interviewed. Maybe this did happen and I missed this but I watched the news cast videos. Could there be more to this story that is purposefully being edited out or just not asked?

I never believe the media fully. They are very irresponsible and inaccurate at times.
If you read the product information of any drug including aspirin you would never want to take it. The truth is that many times the benefits of drugs out weigh the risks. I know I will keep taking my Singulair because I do not want to die of asthma sucking on inhalers like my mother did.

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!