Singulair and nightmare

April I started Singulair last Thursday night and felt tired and depressed
29th on Friday but thought it was something going on in my life. On
2009 Saturday, I had severe, throbbing headaches all day but took the
Singulair for the third night. Sunday, I again had throbbing head- aches so looked up this web site and thought, "Aha!" I stopped
the medicine but had dull headaches on Monday and felt tired. On
Tuesday, I woke up and had trouble breathing. I went to the doctor
who ended up putting me on a nebulizer, giving me a shot of
steroids and prescribing an inhaler that I'm to use 3 times a day as
needed until the Singular is out of my system. I was only put on
the Singular in the first place because my doctor thought my
hoarseness might be from an allergy. What a nightmare!
I also suffered from apprehensiveness, and also
sleeplessness, and a fever. Never again!

An allergist prescribed Singulair for my son when he was starting first grade for asthma/allergy prevention. The side affects were immediate. He became very explosive, angry, panicky and paranoid. Worst of all, he developed severe nightmares. We would be awakened at about 11:30 when he started yelling. He was terrified and could not fully awaken to come out of the nightmare. He dreamed he was being chased by meat-eating dinosaurs. It took a while for him to explain because his speech skills were delayed. About a week into this, I decided to take him off Singulair and was relieved to find the symptoms completely disappeared. I would not recommend this drug for children. Their brains are still developing. It would be like giving them meth!

My son has been on Singulair for about a year and a half...it really seemed to help his allergies...at least at first. This winter has been very dry and I have been having to give him other over the counter allergy medication as the Singulair isn't helping much. He also started losing weight..just not hungry. At first that was ok as he needed to lose a little but then he was getting too thin. He wasn't eating much at school but refused to take a lunch from home. I took him to the doctor just recently to see if he was physical ok since I didn't know what was causing the weight loss. The blood testing showed everything was normal and I just told him he had to start eating better...he has somewhat...but also he finally told me he has been feeling very depressed...seriously depressed and having suicidal thoughts too due to some kids picking on him at school.

I knew there were problems as he complained alot but I had no idea it was this serious. I have taken him out of that school. Right now I don't know if the Singulair could be adding to this depression or if its all just due to the bullies. While he complained a lot he never acted as if it was bothering him that badly or I would have gone to the school about it. Anyway I stopped the Singulair and am going to see if his mood improves or not. After reading some of the scary posts on here regarding the side effects I am wondering if this is a good idea stopping it or not. I am waiting for a call back from his doctor on it. Since its once a day..its kind of hard to wean them off of it...but I could cut it in half ..do that for a few days, then cut it smaller and so forth. His is chewable so I could do that with no problems. He is 13.

My 3 year old son was just prescribed Singulair today. After reading the pamphlet that came with the trial pack, I decided to do more research. All of the side effects that most people have mentioned on this post are listed in the pamphlet. I don't know if I will put my son on this medicine but thought I should mention the importance of actually reading the pamphlets that come with your medicine.

My 6 1/2 year old daughter has been on Singulair for 3 1/2 to 4 years now and we have had horrible experiences! She was having night terrors, mood swings, angry issues, self control issues, crying over small things, etc. We have been to psychiatrists and psychologists who have diagnosed her with mood disorder, sensory processing disorder and anxiety disorder! Well she has recently been having stomach problems so we have been going to a GI to figure that out. I got online to research and found numerous sites that told how Singulair causes all these things in children. We took my daughter off the meds and within 3 or 4 days seen a tremendous difference! She is a totally different child! It just really frustrates me and saddens me that all these children and their families are going through all this and the doctors do not seem to care. The allergist or psychiatrist didn't believe me. They say no study has ever proven such things. I don't care what they say we as parents know our children and we are the experts when it comes to seeing how they change when on this medicine, we are the ones that live with them and are with them everyday not the doctors! I think they just don't want to lose out on their money from prescribing this drug 90% of children with allergies and asthma!

I want to post this because this site has given me good perspective on this Rx and side effects experienced by others; its good to know I am not alone. As far as an agenda, I have none, in fact I was all for the Singulair initially, because it seemed to be a good alternative to inhaled steriods which I had read could interfere with normal growth. My son, 4 yrs. old, with a diagnosis of Asthma, started Singulair about 2 weeks ago. Asthma seems to have been improved by Singulair. Within a couple days of starting it, though, he reported vivid (but not nightmare-ish) dreams, a week later he dropped his afternoon nap, which we were expecting to happen eventually, so didn't think much of it. He is a wild child generally, but we also noticed an uptick in bad and aggressive behavior within a day or two of starting the Singulair; we really clamped down on him though, so that effect has been somewhat muted. He has always occasionally complained of indigestion stomach aches, but these complaints have increased to several times a day in the last week, also complain of lower abdominal pain which he says is "different" than his earlier indigestion stomach aches. Last week or so he's been up late at night, had trouble going to sleep, looks a little pale with dark circles under his eyes ("he's becoming a Goth" I joked with my wife). Last night he got out of bed late, appeared disoriented and seemed to be half awake, half asleep. He was talking, but not making sense and seemed to be upset and/or confused, but when pressed he assurred me nothing was wrong and nothing hurt--put him back to bed and this morning he remembers getting up, but also keeps telling me he had a "weird" (not scarry) dream and that he keeps seeing it while he's awake. Luckily this weird dream was not scarry for him, but he was clearly a little freaked out by seeing it again this morning. He seemed o.k. heading off to preschool, but we are taking him off the Singulair as a precaution. My advice to anyone else out there seeing similar symptoms in their kids is to go with your gut -- I always tell people that a Doctor's job is to tell you the odds, like only 1 in 500 or 1 in 1000 kids will have a certain reaction, or condition, or illness, it is the parents' job to be sure that their kid is not that 1. So I'm taking my kid off the Singulair because I think he may be that 1 kid who experiences these unusual side-effects. How wide spread they are, I have no idea. I will get on my soapbox and say I think it's time for the FDA to require drug companies to conduct long and short term clinical studies on kids for any drug that will be prescribed to kids--entrusting our childrens' health and well being to a drug company's own short term study conducted on fully developed adults is foolish and insane.

I am a mom of twin boys who are 3 1/2. They were 9 weeks premature so we battled RSV for the first two years of their life. Allergies are also an issue therefore, they were put on Singulair at 10 months old. It really seemed to work for them and things seemed to be going okay but once they turned 1 1/2, their behavior started to change. They were constantly throwing toys at each other, sippy cups at people across the room, screaming for no reason, etc. Some may say it was normal behavior for little toddlers. Then the "terrible two's" set in. They started biting, pushing, screaming over anyone who talks to get attention, not listening and for two kids that slept through the night....all of a sudden that stopped too! My husband and I mentioned it to the pediatrician and also tried to going through the state (developmental clinic because of being premature) thinking that we would get some answers and everyone seemed to think it is a combination of their age and the fact there are two of them....sibling rivalry. We now deal with two kids that use to sleep through the night, now end up in our bed every night to fall asleep because they don't like their room and their erratic behavior is stressing my husband and myself out. When they are good, they are great but when it gets bad....it is a nightmare! I even find it hard to get people to watch the kids because they are too much to handle! After reading these postings I realize I am not the only one with kids going through this and that the common link is SINGULAIR! I am not giving this to my boys ever again and I already put a call into the pediatrician to discuss my findings. I have a sense of relief to know that it is not only my children who's behavior is like this but I am scared because I pray that there is not any long term effects that can not be corrected once this drug is out of their system. I just want my boys to be healthy and okay!

My 12 year old was on Singulair from age 4 to 10. We too thought it was a life saving drug. The doctor then put my youngest son on it for allergy cough etc. That is when all hell broke loose. He immediately had signs of depression, anxiety, anger, nightmares, ocd and facial ticks. We took both boys of this drug and I will never use it again.

I've told every doctor that we visit about this and they have basically said they haven't heard this as a symptom. When I told his immunologist this was a symptom he said that if I'm telling him it's a symptom then they aren't going to dispute it. His lack of surprise led me to believe that this wasn't the first time he heard this. This is the same doctor that put my 12 year old on this drug as part of a study through U of M. (At the time, the drug wasn't available for 4 year old)

I would strongly caution anyone about the use of this drug and I wish I had done more research. My son has been off it for 2 years and still has
lingering effects.

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

Almost two weeks ago I took my son off of Singulair and he has not had one nightmare since then and he has lost 4 pounds. The bad news is that he is suffering pretty severe withdrawals, he aches all over and he is an emotional mess. I have a call in to the doctor who told me to take him off of Singulair and I'm hoping I'm not doing damage by taking him off cold-turkey. Does anyone have an idea of how long this type of reaction might last?

My wife and I recently took my daughter to an asthma specialist and she was prescribed Flovent and Singulair as everyday suppressive treatment. Our daughter is only 4 and the first evening of taking SIngulair she was exhibiting exaggerated emotional behaviors such as sadness and excessive crying (sad/moping). The following day the same emotional state was there without anger, but with abnormal crying (for my daughter). She went to preschool and her teacher said she was saying things such as, "I don't care", "I don't need anyone", "I hate this", etc. These are not normal behaviors for our typically happy child. Her doctor said suicidal thoughts and depression were possible side effects in adults, but I am beginning to think they apply to children as well. After only 4 days of Singulair we have decided to stop the treatment. I hope these comments help some of you other parents experiencing the same thing. -Rob

My 6 y/o daughter has been taking Singular for approx. 2 years. She began to have regular stomach pains shortly there after. She was sent to Children's hospital where they put her on a laxitive which made things worse. Then we began testing for food allergies only to find out that she tested positive for a 3 page list of foods. We eliminated those food and had her tested again. She was subsequently allergic to the foods we eliminated. She was recently down to rice, a few meats and some vegetables. Guess what, she is now allergic to those foods.

All this time she has been complaining of severe leg pain, eye pain, throat pain, numbness and tingling in her hands a feet, all of which come an go. I have reported this to all the doctors and specialists we have seen. She had undergone countless blood tests to rule out autoimmune disorders and all come up negative.

She began to develop severe anxiety and just had the blues most of the time. She would be crying and saying off the wall things like, "I don't think my fish is happy". She couldn't stand to be away from me and would stress out about even weather or not she would sit by me at a restaurant. I mentioned this to all of the doctors. They said to not make too much of it. One suggested she see a psychologist. NOT ONE DOCTOR EVER LOOKED AT THE SINGULAR.

Finally about 4 weeks ago my neighbor who is a scientist at a pharmaceutical company called me and told me about the "black box" warning that had just come out on Singular. I took both of my children off of it immediately. My daughter went through about a 10 day period where her anxiety got worse and then it was just gone. We are adding foods back into her diet and at this point she has not had any severe allergic reactions.

The last 2 years have been a complete nightmare for her and for us. I am a medical professional and I have had doctors treat me like a hypocondriac, hypersensitive, attention seeking mother. I feel so justified and saddened by the recent findings all at the same time. Most of all I am so grateful that we figured this out before things go even worse.

Please let me know if anyone else is suffering food related reactions as a side effect.

My son has been on Singulair off and on for two years. He goes off in the summertime since his asthma is mostly due to upper respiratory infections. He recently went back on it, maybe three weeks ago. He is 7 years old. Every morning now he wakes up with nightmares. This morning he said that he had a nightmare that all six of his webkinz were killed, except for one. The night before he said a tornado had blow our house away. There have been other nightmares too.

I decided this morning to stop Singulair, then called the allergist. The allergist agreed we should stop it and see what effect would happen. Today during school, the teacher had to call me because he was yelling at other students and was hitting books because he wanted a prize for fund raising. She said he was inconsolable.
During the summer, he was a totally different child -- easy going, laughing a lot. Now he seems stressed out, anxious and depressed.
I also noticed he has begun oversleeping.
Even worse, he was diagnosed with ADHD back in April. All of the surveys filled out by teachers and by me were from when he was on Singulair.

I know that drugs can do this to adults. I was once on a birth control pill that made me so paranoid and neurotic, I had never felt that way before. A different pill was fine and never had that happen again.

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 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 just started using Singulair a few days ago. I am 54 years old and just started coughing at night only. I would be fine during the day and then never failed, at night I started to cough keeping me awake. I was given antibiotics, narcotic cough syrups but it only helped temporarily and then I went back to coughing nights only again. So as I mentioned, I started taking Singulair a few days ago because my physician thinks I have developed allergies and Singulair is noted to help night coughs. It is helping my night coughs but I still cough a few times at night and now I cough quite a few times in the day when I never use to cough in the daytime. Wondering if Singulair is worth taking as the symptoms are becoming opposite? I hate taking drugs and don't know if I should find a safer alternative? Help, anyone? Thank you

I have a 4 year old whom was diagnosed with Asthma over this winter. She has always had coughing at night and Asthma treatment seemed to really work. We wanted to take her off the breathing treatments to build her system back up so she was given two months of Singulair. It seemed to work great. Asthma symptoms seemed to be controlled without puffers and nebulizers. However the last week which would be the 6th week on singulair she suddenly had severe separation anxiety. Even at Vacation Bible School which she loved and knew her teachers she had what I would call an anxiety attack which was completely not her normal disposition. I didn't put it together though until last night. She woke up and got in bed with me. After barely falling asleep about 3am she woke up screaming that there were bugs everywhere. She "saw" them and "heard" them and began slapping at her legs arms and face. At first I thought it was just a nightmare that I couldn't get her to wake up from. I put her in the shower and she still screamed. This went on through the rest of the night. She finally calmed down a little after an hour of histarics but still said she saw bugs. The more I thought about it I thought it may be the singulair and as soon as I searched for it I found this site. Needless to say she will not be taking this drug again. We will try to find some other way to treat her asthma. Thanks for all the insight.

My 5 years old son has been on Singulair for 9 months. His allergy symptoms have completely gone away. He’s no longer has his night time cough, bloody nose, and frequent croup due to allergies.
My life has been a living HELL from the moment I started this medicine. Before he was on this medicine he was always a pleasant, smart, well-behaved child. Right after he started singulair he began having temper tantrums, becoming increasingly argumentative, not listening. He gets mood swings like you would not believe cry and/or yell at us over the silliest things, kicking, screaming, nightmares, and became very physically aggressive. We were unable to take him places because we never knew how he would behave in public .He was extremely unhappy little 5 year old boy. He also complained of upset stomach and fatigue. Even his school complained about his behavior and they said that he might have PDD. After consulting with doctors we got the assurance that he does not have PDD, but we end up changing his school anyway.
Being a first time mom I never thought it was the medication, I thought it was just a normal behavior. I thought as a parent I must be doing something wrong! I couldn't believe that other parents have gone through the same nightmare.
Two weeks ago the doctor handed me a report about singulair and its suicidal side effect and ask me to stop using this medicine for a while. Since then I started to notice a dramatic change in our son's behavior. He woke up singing, laughing. He wants to help with chores. He is doing great with his school lessons, and very patient with everyone. He is now a more stable and friendly 5 years old.
Wow, I have a completely different child, and thank God I took him off singulair.
As parents, please let’s do something to stop poisoning our children.

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?

Chris, truthfully your posts were a waste of your time. The majority of the people here who have actual instances that they can account for. For you to dismiss that is ignorance in it's true form. QUESTION? what drug company do you work for? As you have a valid point there are side effects with any medication prescription/over the counter/herbal, whatever organic/inorganic source it may be. As a medical professional I HAVE SEEN THESE SIDE EFFECTS FIRST HAND! I also have a friend who works for the FDA who has informed me of many developments that unfortunately because it is under investigation I can not post. I also have had a first hand experience with this drug with a young child. I understand some parent/people may also be ignorant and be quick to blame the singulair without ruling out any other possibilities. However the fact of the matter exists here. So again for you to dismiss what the majority of the people here are trying to do is quite frankly rude. To go through hell and back with my four year old innocent child, to take him off the med and now everything is fine. Coincidence... I think not. He was evaluated by psychiatrist, neurologist, his pediatrician-who consulted with 3 others, and an allergist and all come to the same conclusion. I will advocate until every parent/patient knows the risks. It is my responsibility as a parent. If I can prevent another child from going through this, even just one then I accomplished something. So again I ask you to be sensitive here and not try to make those of us who have valid concerns feel as if it may be otherwise. Do your research first!

I am posting an email address for people that have stopped dispensing this drug and see the symptoms of the side effects disappear.Please tell all who have seen a change in their child or loved one to email this woman.I met with Dr.Sarah Sellers and other members from the FDA in Washington DC she is in charge of Safety Review in the office of Surveillance and Epidemiology.This is critical in the investigation into SINGULAIR .Everyone wants to help and this is how to begin.The email is sarah.sellers@fda.hhs.gov Our Congresswoman has requested the TV advertisement for SINGULAIR to be changed,they are stating mild side effects and that is not known to be true at this time.I am reaching out to all of you who have posted and that know anyone who has ,to please do this along with filing on ******.We have to work within the guidelines of the system,this will certainly help the investigation to be more accurate.My husband and I are in this to help all the families that have suffered so greatly,take this opportunity to help also.Thank You in advance Kate and David M.

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!

My son is 5 years old. He was put on Singulair in August following a case of pnemonia. He has asthma. I found it worked well since I was barely using inhalers anymore. His eczema was even getting better. So I was happy with the medication. He also seemed to be getting more agitated with us. At least three times a day he would have an outburst towards his brother or us, like he was going to punch or hit us. Then I would say "why are you mad at me" and he would say "I'm not mad, I'm frustrated" and then burst in tears. He was getting a lot of time outs. Then two months ago he started saying "this is not a good day" or "this is a sad day". I was wondering if singulair was to blame, but it wasn't until I heard concerns from other moms. I took him off it as an experiment and noticed the next day was without his outbursts. Then I just never gave him anymore...and I am relieved to say he is as "normal" as I remember him before Singulair!!! He also was unable to get to sleep easily on Singulair, sometimes 1, 2 and even three hours to get to sleep. Now he is out in 20 minutes if not less. I haven't talked to the Doctor yet. I have noticed his eczema is flaring up again and he has used his inhaler this week (although he has a cold). I think I can deal with that without Singulair and the problems I am suspicious come from it's use.

i don't need the fda investigation to tell me what this drug is capable of,i am so happy my son is off of it,the 3 year nightmare he lived is over,for that i thank god.He sleeps at night now,peacefully and soundly,he is no longer afraid to step outside,he can leave me and play with friends and not be afraid,he can go to school and learn,without letting his mind race in places no child should have to go.To all who knew of these side effects and chose to keep it quiet, shame shame shame on you.This drug poisoned and tortured and held captive in their minds the most precious and innocent victims.I am forever changed by this and will speak out loudly to all i meet

Hopefully this will prove to the doubters that there are genetic reasons for the variation of efficacy and adverse side effective when taking Montelukast.

I have several areas of concern (concerned citizen is concerned). One of the main areas is the reliability of Montelukast due to differences in genetics among populations. The cysLT1 (Singulair) receptor is a GENE. As I said before, it would be possible to predict those patients for which Montelukast would and would not be effective and those patients whose gene expression profile would cause them to have unwanted side effectives.

I have been looking for a way to give reasonable proof of that which could be used to convince your doctors that Montelukast is not for everybody. I happened to locate a researcher who had invented and patented methods for predicting drug sensitivity and efficacy in inflammatory disease. I have quoted below from his patent application. He intended to provide a method for determining efficacy and drug sensitivity for pharmaceuticals which include leukotriene antagonists - Montelukast.

Quoted from:

Methods for predicting drug sensitivity in patients afflicted with an inflammatory disease
US Patent Issued on December 12, 2006

Methods are disclosed for predicting the efficacy of a drug for treating an inflammatory disease in a human patient, including: obtaining a sample of cells from the patient; obtaining a gene expression profile of the sample in the absence and presence of in vitro modulation of the cells with specific cytokines and/or mediators; and comparing the gene expression profile of the sample with a reference gene expression profile, wherein similarities between the sample expression profile and the reference expression profile predicts the efficacy of the drug for treating the inflammatory disease in the patient.

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The field of pharmacogenomics measures differences in the effect of medications that are caused by genetic variations. Such differences are manifested by differences in the therapeutic effects or adverse events of drugs. For most drugs, the genetic variations that potentially characterize drug-responsive patients from non-responders remain unknown.
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In another embodiment, the invention is directed to a method for predicting the efficacy in a human asthma patient of leukotriene antagonists including, but not limited to, montelukast (a.k.a., SINGULAIR™; Merck, Whitehouse Station, N.J.), zafirlukast (a.k.a., ACCOLATE™, AstraZeneca, Wilmington, Del.), and zileuton (a.k.a., ZYFLO™; Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, Ill.), comprising: obtaining a sample of cells from the patient; obtaining a gene expression profile from the sample in the absence and presence of in vitro modulation of the cells with specific mediators; and comparing the gene expression profile of the sample with a reference gene expression profile, wherein similarity in expression profiles between the sample and reference profiles predicts the efficacy in the human asthmatic patient of leukotriene antagonists.

Many of the cells involved in causing airway inflammation are known to produce signaling molecules within the body called "leukotrienes." Leukotrienes are responsible for causing the contraction of the airway smooth muscle, increasing leakage of fluid from blood vessels in the lung, and further promoting inflammation by attracting other inflammatory cells into the airways. Oral anti-leukotriene medications have been introduced to fight the inflammatory response typical of allergic disease. These drugs are used in the treatment of chronic asthma. Recent data demonstrates that prescribed anti-leukotriene medications can be beneficial for many patients with asthma, however, a significant number of patients do not respond to anti-leukotriene drugs.

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The genes selected are those that have been determined to be differentially expressed in either a disease, drug-responsiveness, or drug-sensitive cell relative to a normal cell and confer power to predict the response to the drug. By comparing tissue samples from patients with these reference expression profiles, the patient's susceptibility to a particular disease, drug-responsiveness, or drug-resistance can be determined.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/7148008-description.html

The inventor's website: Hakon Hakonarson M.D. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

http://stokes.chop.edu/research/profiles/?ID=251

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

It appears that our biggest problem is what is being done with all our complaints to our pediatricians, allergists and other Drs. - NOTHING - which makes everyone say "I haven't heard any of those side effects" reported. This is where I believe we need to keep our fight going! We need to continue to tell EVERYONE to report it to the FDA so that they will begin to listen to us!

And ARTIE, if you are reading this - you should thank your lucky stars that you haven't lived our nightmare or are stilling living it as we are!

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.....

I just came back home from the dr. We made some tests and my 5 years old daughter is allergic to house dust mites and has beeing diagnosticated with athopic asthma. The dr. prescribed Singulair. Now, after reading all the posts, I freaked out and I have not idea what to do. I am really sorry I did't ask about side effect, but I considered, her beeing a dr, knows better than me. My thought now is: I'm not going to give my daughter Singulair.

UPDATE: Our nightmare with SINGULAIR has not ended! After reading "conerned citizens" report discussing the possiblility of Singulair causing asthma blew me away. My son was put on this drug for food allergies not asthma b/c they thought of his two anaphylaxsis episodes in 5 days. 1 food related the other unknown (maybe outdoor mold?) He had no prior issues with breathing.

He has been off of it for almost 2 weeks however over the last week he has slowly developed some breathing issues. After getting off of it, he still has his ear infection from the second day of being on it and last Friday after playing some basketball began to seem like he was winded so I brought him in. He was having trouble breathing. I called the Dr. and he said it could be excercised induced asthma. He is a very active boy who runs non stop and has NEVER had breathing issues before Singulair! It seemed to pass after a few hours. The next fews days he coughed a few times when playing and I thought what the heck is happening to him. Monday at school they didn't go outside so he was fine b/c he didn't run around. Tuesday, they came to get me b/c he was having trouble breathing and one of his teachers whose son has asthma said I think you better give him an inhaler. I called the Dr. ASAP and he approved us to borrow another child's. He freaked out and wouldn't let us give it to him. After 2 epi-shots in the previous weeks, he wanted nothing to do with that. At school the next day, we made him take the inhaler if he wanted to go out to playso he did. He didn't cough but a few times. No excercise at all. Then last night, he got really bad. He started to cough and couldn't stop to the point of gaging and it seemed as though he had developed a ton of phlem and kept trying to swallow. We ended up in the ER where we were told that he has asthma! I am so furious! I don't get this at all! If this report is accurate and my son got asthma by going on it - this will be devastating. We kept him home today from school and took him into the Dr. b/c he continued to cough all night. He is now on Flovent, Albuterol and has an enebulizer. I'm probably the only one of all of us who child did not have asthma to begin with.

Has anyone who did not have asthma before singulair now have any issues? Please let me know!

We have been through hell for the past three years with my son, who is now 18. He went from a very happy, confident kid who had lots of friends, loved playing several sports, played the piano, enjoyed going to school where he got straight A's, to a complete disaster. I cried when I read many of these postings. All these stories sound so similar to ours. He had trouble sleeping where he couldn't get to sleep at night and then his sleep would be very restless (one time he punched a hole in the wall in his sleep, several times he fell out of bed) and he would be all twisted up in his blankets in the morning. Getting him up in the morning became a complete nightmare, I dreaded getting up in the morning because our mornings had become so stressful. He just could not seem to wake up no matter what method we tried and sometimes it could get quite ugly. We took him in for several sleep studies which didn't yield any results. He started feeling sick all of the time with frequent stomach aches and ended up missing alot of school. We had a CT scan done on his abdomin which didn't show anything abnormal. Because he missed alot of school he fell behind and his grades dropped, he stopped hanging out with all of his old buddies and he started getting into trouble. There were days when he would be rolled up in a ball in his bed crying, telling me that he couldn't stand the thought of going to school. This was not the son we knew and we, like most people with teenagers, figured it was just a phase and would go away. Unfortunately, he ended up getting thrown out of school and has moved out of state. He will not be graduating with his class this spring which is a tragedy. Although he has been away from us now for 10 months, we keep in touch regularly and he is doing great (he stopped taking Singulair well over a year ago). He has had a steady job that he loves for the past 10 months and is apparently able to get himself up in the mornings and to work on time. He has been living on his own, paying rent and all of the other associated expenses that go with this, he has not asked us for any assistance and appears to be coping very well. He has made a lot of new friends and seems to be thriving. We are very proud of him! He would like to get his GED and go to college. His transformation has been dramatic. The frustrating part is that it didn't have to be this way. We feel like we have pretty much lost the last three years of our son's life, and we're not sure when he will be coming home. We all miss him terribly, especially his brother and sister, there is a big hole in our family. And the stress of the last three years has taken a toll on our family. I have passed some of these postings on to our Dr. I hope all of the information on these postings will help to spare other families the sadness and heartache that we have gone through. If there is going to be a class-action suit I would appreciate receiving any information regarding that.

Thank you so much for all the information! My son was prescribed Singulair pills this fall. He has been taking them for seasonal allergies and we had no problems. These were the sample chewable kind. Then came the pills... Unfortunately I did not see the news or read the article about the side affects of Singulair. Within 4 days my happy well adjusted 10 year old had serious sleeping problems along with stomach aches. He will wake up screaming and crying and cannot tell me what is wrong. He said he had a nightmare but doesn't remember what it was about.

My husband was away on a business trip when I started him on the medicine. He came back to a very unhappy and sleepy child. I asked my son what he was scared of and he asked me to tell daddy that he does not feel safe while he is out of town. He can't sleep unless he is by one of us. He's not safe. His bedroom is 15' from our bedroom! He loves his doctor and begged that I call Dr. Becky so he can talk to her.

I could not take this anymore and started thinking about what was wrong. I went through all his activities, friends he's played with, school problems, anything! Then it hit me, effects of Singulair!

Wow, what an eye opener. Fortunately my husband did not have him take it this morning. He will not be going back to this medication. Ever!

Thank you for the information once again. I hope everyone's child gets better. Everyone wants a happy well child. No child should have to go through this. They have enough pressure as it is without the meds making things worse.

Maeri

I am speechless at all the postings re: Singulair. Both of my sons-ages 12 and 10 - have been on Singulair for over 5years for Allergies/Asthma induced by allergies and after reading the possible side effects, I now realize that my oldest son has been affected. His behavior, sleeping habits and social interaction has changed and in the last couple years has increased out of control. I recently made an appt. for him w/a therapist re: anger issues and as of today, called his allergist re: taking him off Singulair cold turkey. He still takes Zyrtec every day and I'm hoping that will be enough for his seasonal allergies to get him through. I miss my sweet boy and will try to make up to him what I've done by allowing this drug to damage his inner self.
Justin/Jake's mom-Ohio
angelray9698@att.net.

I am currently a junior in college and I have had severe allergies my whole life. Last summer my doctor prescribed Singulair and I really liked it as an allergy medicine (except for pollen). As a person, I am usually optimistic, happy go lucky, and always trying to make people laugh. I am also an avid learner, and I love school. I usually never miss class...well that was until last fall. I would get up everyday for my 930 class and take a shower and then for some reason just go back to bed. As Christmas approached- I failed my first class, got pneumonia, went on probation for my honor fraternity in which I was an officer, and was close to losing my academic scholarship. I changed my major to something easier in order to bring my grades back up this spring. I was actually excited about my new classes but then the semester started. Same routine- get up, take a shower, sleep and cry all day. I have lost most of friends due to my antisocial habits, gained 45 pounds to become 180 lbs on my 5'1 frame (borderline morbid obese). My parents and lifelong friends were worried I was going to commit suicide due to my downward spiral. My mother and doctor didn't want me to go on antidepressants in fear i would gain more weight. So they decided to change my ADD medicine which helped but not a lot. Then the suicidal effects of Singulair hit the news. I stopped taking it and within a week (spring break) I was back to my normal self like nothing ever happened. Except something did happen- I lost a huge part of me that is going to take awhile to get back. I was so convinced that I was causing the depression on myself and that I was crazy. Now the end of my school semester is wrapping up and I have a lot of catching up to do. There are times out of habit that I still act antisocial (which is completely uncharacteristic of me), but I'm hoping that will fade and I can get back to truly being myself. It's just so scary for me to think that there are unsuspecting prescription drugs that can cause so much pain. If I didn't have my family and true friends supporting me all year and sticking with me through all this, I know for a fact that I wouldn't be here today..

Wow, everyone, thanks for the support. Medicdad asked that I keep him posted about how I'm feeling, and this is only day two, and I hope this isn't a placebo effect, but I do feel better already. I did cry a bit yesterday, but I didn't get carried away with my thoughts or anything, and not once did I have any inclinations to harm myself. No thoughts like that came into my mind all day, and for what seems like forever they came in several times a day, even when I was "happy". Seriously, I would be doing laundry, nothing upsetting happened, and I would think about hanging myself in the garage. And who do you confide in with something like that? That is CRAZY. I feel like I have more rational thoughts and a better perspective on pretty much everything that presents itself to me, but I don't want to get my hopes up just yet. As far as the asthma, I feel like I can breathe the same, even better, which seems odd, since yesterday. I do take advair, and I am hoping that will be enough. I also take zyrtec for my allergies, so hopefully those two will suffice in maintaining my quality of life in those areas. I am already planning to exercise this afternoon after work, which I think is a good sign, and could help my lung function naturally. So I hope that I can report that things are much improved after a week, like so many other people have posted.

I am 39 years old; a great family and great kids. Went on Singulair about 2 years ago and am now facing a divorce and issues with my children because of my mood swings and depression. I have never had emotional issues prior to this and at this age and relative good health physically and financially be feeling this way. I am going to also talk to my doctor immediately. I don't know if anyone else feels this way; but I can feel the swings coming on; but just am helpless to do anything about them. As a child in the early 70's I was overprescribed sudafed, with many of the same results. It feels like it's not you.

Just wanted to update everyone reading in. I have been off Singulair for 6 days now and have felt more relaxed and better than I have in a long time. Also, I would like to know how long it has taken for others to not have ANY symptoms after stopping the medication? Just had a bad nightmare. Something I have been having since being on Singulair. Hope this is out of my system soon. Dizziness is still hanging around some too. To the parents with children, please give your child a lot of hugs and let them know how much you love them. I know you allready do, but give them a few more.

What a range of emotions since the news broke,found this sight so helpful, so happy i wasnt alone,Had hope ellation anger and today i am sick to my stomach what have i done to my son,why didnt i see

Our son was put on several medications 9/07 due to bad asthma and allergies. Since then we saw his behavior begin to go down hill. He would complain of stomaches, not want to go to school, became increasingly more irritable and has mood swings. He was a good student and we have never had a problem with him attending school. Since 9/07 we have taken him to a total of 10 different doctors. Pediatricians, therapist, allergy doctor and three licensed psychiatrists. Everyone said that we were crazy when we suggested that this behavior was linked to the medication. The psychiatrist diagnosed him with anxiety disorder along with school phobia. This has been a nightmare. I finally took him to an acupuncture doctor as a last resort because the doctors wanted us to put him on Prozac for the anxiety. Our family doctor has even suggested he is Bipolar! The acupuncture doctor has recommended a diet change and some treatments with her so that we can remove him from all his medications. I am so glad that I listened to my instincts and did not put him on the Prozac. I was so upset when this story aired about the Singulair. We have been trying to get the doctors to listen to us since 9/07 about the possible link. They still deny the connection and advised us to not remove him from the medicine. But for once I am going to handle things my way and we have already seen a difference in his behavior. We will keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. My heart goes out to everyone that has had similiar experiences. These doctors should listen to the parents instead of assuming we are all trying to blame behavior problems on medication.

**Update** on my 17 year old son, 7 years Singulair use. He has been in a therapeutic boarding school for 2 years because of serious behavioral issues quite possibly because of side effects of Singulair. He wrote me a letter the morning he went off Singulair, March 29. In it he wrote about being very depressed and sad and told about how he had been struggling with it for such a long time. It was very upsetting. I got the letter this morning. Coincidentally, we had a conference call about 20 minutes after I read the letter. He has been off singulair for 4 days now. I asked him how he felt. He said "Excellent". That he was feeling a lot better, not very depressed and really feeling good about himself. I have not heard him describe himself as "Excellent" in a long, long time. I am cautiously optimistic that removing Singulair from his system will have a dramatic effect on his well being. He sounded incredibly upbeat today. It was amazingly good news! I have reported online to the FDA his symptoms and sent my comments to CNN. The FDA needs to issue a BLACK BOX warning about Singulair. It's quite possible that this drug has caused my family to live a nightmare for 7 years.

I was horrified when I saw the news report about singulair on Thursday! My little angel had her first asthma attack when she was 5 years old. She was put on Singulair and has been on it for 5 years. My life has been a living HELL since. Temper tantrums, biting, kicking, screaming, nightmares, waking up during the night, clinging to me constantly, We were unable to take her places because we never knew how she would behave in public I felt like a prisoner. We tried putting her in school but she ran away from the teachers and got into fights with other students. The school said she had A.D.H.D. and severe learning disablities I had to pull her out of school and home school her. Before she was on this Devil medicine she was the sweetest little girl you could come across. She was very polite, respectful, happy, and loving. Her doctor always reassured me that it wasn't her medicine. I have 4 girls and she was the only one who had any problems. I thought as a parent I must be doing something wrong! I prayed for 5 years for this nightmare to end I never dreamed a little 5mg pink evil pill was turning my family's life upside down. I couldn't believe that other parents have gone through the same nightmare. I took her off that same night as the report and will never put her on Singulair again. It's been 5 days and I already see a big difference in her behavior. She woke up singing, laughing, and no fighting with her sisters. She wants to help with chores. She is doing great with her school lessons, and very patient with everyone. I thank God for answering all our prayers and giving us our children back. When everyone goes to sleep at night say A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO GOD.

My now 16 yr old started taking Singulair 11-17-2003. Within months she started changing. Grades dropped, started dressing in dark clothes, withdrew from most friends and family, tremors of hands and feet, anxiety attacks, and worst of all started cutting her legs with razors. I took her to our mental health clinic for counseling and they put her on depression medication. All these things are documented. I stopped the Singulair 3-27-08. Will my child return from this nightmare. Please help!

Praise the Lord! It is about time. When I read this in the paper yesterday I could believe it. I have been waiting for this to happen for two years now when i decided to take my daughter off this junk. I have told every single person i know what this stuff did to my sweet little baby whom is now 9. She too experienced nightmares, mood swings, anxiety, night sweats, stomach aches, headaches, constipation, urinary problems, leg pains, aggression. She has always been a normal kid for her age. She had always been in dance classes since she was 3 and loved it. Never ever had she been into trouble at school or dance but when she got on this stuff her teacher was calling me at least once a week about her being rude and very forgetful about everything. Her dance teacher told me she looked like she was spaced out all the time. And not listening. I noticed she was having panic attacks in the stores when we would be shopping. She cried and told me"MOMMY I DO NOT KNOW WHY I AM ACTING SO MEAN? I HATE MYSELF. I DO NOT WANT TO BE ME." i cried too and we started praying about it. I posted on this site 2 yrs. ago when i decided to take her off against her ped. advice. She actually got mad at me when she tried to put my younger daughter on it when she was 3. I told her no i was not going to give it to her nor was i giving it to my older daughter any more. She looked at me like i was crazy. And said my girls needed it. I told her i did not like what it did to my older daughter. We do not go to her any longer. It took a couple weeks and my daughter started acting like her old self. I do think it messed her mind up though. Singular is evil and should be off the market. It makes me sick to think back on what it did to my daughter. It was a complete nightmare!

After reading the recent news reports and reading other parents opinions on Singulair I thought I should be fair to the company, and to other parents seeking advice on this drug, to write about our POSITIVE experience with Singulair. Our 7 year old son was diagnosed with seasonal Asthma when he was 3. We have him on the Ventilator and Advair. During spring time allergy season he would begin wheezing and coughing on a regular basis. We would then give him his puffers. While it would relieve him of the wheezing he would be quite hyper and out of control. Therefore, our goal was to wean him off the puffers. We added Claritin to his diet each day. When he was 5 he struggled through his spring soccer season. As the months went by he looked tired, very sickly, and worn out. His coach recommended that we investigate Singulair. It really turned his child's life around! We talked to our doctor about it. She wasn't familiar with children using Singulair but she prescribed the 5mg chewable but recommended that he use both puffers before his soccer games. We followed her advice. He took his Singulair before bed and the puffers before the game. Sadly, we noticed that he was completely "out of it" during his games. He had no focus (not shocking for a 6 year old boy), no real interest in the game, and no energy. We just assumed it was because he was tired after a full day of school. One day we forgot his puffers but decided to let him play anyway. He had a great game. During a daytime tournament he was back to having his head in the clouds, so for the second game we decided to "forget" his puffers again. He played a great game. But best of all..no breathing problems. We decided to omit the puffers for the rest of the season and just use Singulair. It worked wonderful for him. None of the side effects that the other parents have described. We use it when spring begins and for the the first part of the fall season. He doesn't use it during the winter months. We are experiencing a real dry March so I started the Singulair on Tuesday. Then all of the negative comments came out. I certainly will not dismiss the concerns of the product. We are watching him closely to make sure there are no negative side effects. So far, so good. And no need for the puffers!

I have been taking Singulair since it came on the market almost 10 years ago. I am now 26 years old and working on a Masters in Psychology. My theory is about this drug that people that are experiencing depression, and suicidal thoughts are prone to having this without the drug. I cannot skip a day without this medication or else I start having severe flair ups. I am writing because it always seems when there is a good drug on the market it gets pulled because of the side effects. I hope Merck does extensive testing and surveying to make sure of these allegations before the drug is discontinued. Also I took Singulair the entire time I was pregnant and my child has no kind of birth defects etc.

Well all i can say is it is about time they investigate this stuff! My daughter was put on this 2 yrs. ago and was on it for 1 year off and on. It was a complete nightmare. She experienced nightmares, leg pains, crying all the time, getting into trouble at school, teacher would call every week about something, several urinary tract infections,which lead to many test of why. Really bad mood swings, and aggression. I used to hate it when she got of the school bus. Because i knew it was going to be on the minute she walked in the door. She would cry to me and say she" hates her self" and "mama i do not know why I am so mean." I kept taking her back to her ped. and she would ask are you still giving her the singulair and one day i said no. The doctor got mad at me because i told her i did not like that stuff. She said it was fine to give it to her. I told everyone i knew not to give it to their child because finally i realized it was making my child depressed and feel worse. I am so mad about this. It makes me sick. I want to sue the makers of this drug.

I was given this in 2002 to try for my allergies. I am chemically sensitive to fragrances and very common everyday chemicals and many drugs. Well, I had severe nightmares and the craziest dreams. There was no way I could continue to take this psychedelic medication. I am glad to see the FDA is finally waking up. My doctor did not take my nightmare complaints seriously at the time and told me he never heard of this happening to other patients before. Now, I see the truth and how many others suffered and how terrible for all the children out there.

I am sitting here in absolute shock. I cannot believe all that i have heard from the wonderful people posting on here.
My son has been talking singular for 2 yrs now. I did take him off in the summer months. He was given this medicine for allergies and bronchial problems he seem to have in the winter. He is 5 and was also diagnosed with epilepsy. He has "absent seizures" and has had a difficult time finding a good combo of meds to treat the seizures. Last summer he seemed to be very good, had no seizures for months and i thought that Sick Kids had found a fix. When winter came around I put him back on singular. I am guessing about a month after i was back on the phone with the doctors telling them that again this epilepsy meds were causing sleeping and anxiety problems. HE has been on 3 diff meds since and still having sleeping, pains, headaches and contently scared of everything. We signed him up for skating lessons, and had to cancel do to the music would cause him to have an all out panic attack. TV commercials that have any type of Bass cause him to walk backwards around the TV so he will not see it. I have been blaming the epilepsy meds all along. I am sooo frustrated, if this is the cause of all our problems i will be so hurt and angry. This medication that we were told is a simple product that a lot of people are on has seemed to be a worse nightmare. I will calling my doctor tomorrow and discussing this.

My daughter will be 2 in June and she suffers with asthma she has been taken diff meds such as xopenex, pulmicort, orapred, and now singulair. i researched all the other meds and took her off but the asthma specialist said she needed the pulmicort and i asked her pediatrician what he thought and he prescribed singulair he said it was completely safe and i had nothing to worry about but now i am very much worried because my daughter is only 21 months old and can not tell me exactly what wrong if anything. she has only been taking this singulair since last night so it has been twice she has taken it and last night she had a nightmare. she was fussy going to bed, it took a long while to wind her down she normally falls asleep between 9 and 10 pm last night she went out around 12. her lungs r very sensitive and i want her to get better but a lot of these meds have really bad side affects and who's to say what will be the long term affects and thats what i worry about the most. i just don't know what to do and I'm very worried. i came across this site by accident but I'm glad i did cuz now i know that this is not safe to give my 21 month old daughter.

My son will be 4 next month he was only on Singulair for a month and a half to control his asthma and it has been such a stressful and sad nightmare for me as his mom. He was always been a smart and sweet kid, really calm and had a great attention span now after Singulair I feel like someone took my son and I can't get him back. His behavior is sporadic he has no attention span he can't sit still he has had leg pain, no appetite, not even for his favorite foods. He is about to be kicked out from his preschool because he has shown heightened levels of aggression for no reason and I don't know what to do. The pediatrician tells me that he has been off it for 9 days and it should be out of his system I don't believe it and I'm wondering when my son will be normal again. I feel terrible disciplining him because I feel like its not his fault its this medication that I didn't want to give him in the first place and I regret trusting her because of what its done to my son. There has to be a way to issue some kind of warning or lawsuit against this company this medication is NOT FOR CHILDREN! Please don't give it to your children.