Singulair and nightmares

I just started Singulair about a month ago. Before I started taking the tablets I remember hearing some negative information on the news about the medicine. I found this web site and read about all the side effects before taking my first tablet. Even though there was so much negative information I thought I would give the medicine a try anyway. I have always been in good health and only needed this medicine for seasonal allergies. Part of me said "I know the side effects wont affect me!" Well I was WRONG! I have had the worst nightmares!!!

The nightmares started the first night I started taking Singulair. I continued taking the medicine hoping the nightmares would pass. Well, they have only got worse. However, last night was horrible. Not only did I have my nightly nightmares I had a hallucination! It started when I heard my 2 year old son wake up. He first opened his bedroom door then drank some water that was on his night stand, then was on his way over to my room. I got up to put him back in bed just to find out his bedroom door was closed and he was sound asleep in his bed. I haven't had any other side effects, but I think this is a good enough reason to stop taking the medicine. Does anyone have any other suggestions for another allergy medicine I can take. I've already tried Nasonex and Flonase they don't work nearly as good as Singulair. Any suggestions would be great thanks!

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.

After taking a "leave of Absence" from this site, I see that Singulair is still up and thriving. I still see ads for it on TV, over and over again. They haven't been altered at all. Makes me sick. I wish there was away to get to other people whose children have died by suicide and investigate as to whether or not they were ever on singulair. Keep fighting. We'll get there! Kate K

5 months Singulair free,yesterday was Matts first day of high school,his first day of regular school in 2 years as he could not leave the house or cope with out panic and fear.7am he awoke by himself and got ready for school,the only thing i saw in his eyes was excitement,he left the house smiling.While he was gone i passed and worried waiting for the phone to ring in case he needed me ,watching the clock and wondering how his day was. he arrived home at 2 thirty still smiling,i asked him how his day was he said fine, i asked him what they did he said nothing ,lol all is good ,thank you thank you thank you

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

My son, who just turned 14 this month, was on Singulair for over 2 years.
He was diagnosed with reactive airway disease and possibly Asthma--and prescribed this awful drug-even back in 2004. The doctor said how wonderful this med was and prevents any further attacks.. So, for 2 years-every night, he took this mood altering, destructive drug. He lost all interest in school, his athletics-soccer, skateboarding, biking..in fact became almost a vacant , very unhappy, child-had stomach aches, joint pains and reflux--why--I brought him to the doctor and Pediatric center so frequently--all they kept saying his --his asthma is better, much be other issues...Even after the March 2008 suicide--his doctor said-that is just an isolated incident-just monitor him--It is a good drug. Right, month by month his behavior escalated to wanting to die, no reason to go to school-he said he was stupid and a failure and why don't I understand there is no reason to his life. A usually happy fun-loving boy -my son- didn't want to live. Nothing made him happy-I started to believe what the doctors said--maybe something or someone at school (bully, pedophile??) caused this change. Terrible nightmares and vivid dreams...Until this past July, I asked him want to go to the library for some books or dvd's...he went ballistic-threw everything off his computer desk and tried to break his chair. He is not an aggressive boy but this behavior was becoming a daily issue. Along with everything flying off his table, was his bottle of Singulair pills. It then dawned on me..I have been poisoning my only son. The child I know and love and gave birth to returned within a few days--although I am worried sick about further asthma attacks --all the doctors can prescribe is a steroid drug-asthmex or Pulmicort.. I cannot understand nor comprehend why this drug is being prescribed for children and young adults. The guilt I live with is terrible as my son has lost 2 years of his life--
and thought there was something really wrong with him-At least we woke up---in time--how about some other parents..thinking it's just normal adolescent behavior for their child or their fault???

I posted a paragraph at the end of June, after my son had been off Singulair a short while, but enough for me to notice the difference in his behavior. He's 11 and became so aggressive on Singulair that it was affecting the whole family. Well, we took a vacation with my family and they mentioned, on their own, that they saw a change in my son. We were not talking about singulair or anything like that. They just said that they saw a change in him. How nice!!!! I also realized that, finally, he was not having any more nightmares. His behavior changed immediately, thank goodness. The nightmares, well that took a little longer. I can live with that! Hang in there everyone else!!!

In response to Wewe's post, I've been wondering the same thing. Since taking my daughter off Singular almost 2 months ago, I'm seeing a different almost typical kid. Four years ago about 2 months after starting Singular my daughter was diagnosed with anxiety. As her condition got worse she was diagnosed with depression. We started to see OCD and tics so they were added as a diagnosis It was determined that it was related to strep infections so she was diagnosed with PANDAS. She was started on Zoloft and klonidine. The Zoloft made her worse. Her fears of hurting herself got so intrusive she was hospitalized. Her cholesterol was high too. The Zoloft was discontinued and Prozac was started. She's had therapy all 4 years. She also neede physical therapy due to muscle and joint pain. Now she's doing better, off Singular. Does she really have PANDAS, OCD? I don't know. She's still on Prozac, we just did a slight decrease this week. Is this medication the trigger for underlying conditions. Learned behaviors can be unlearned, but are there lasting physical effects? If a gene has been turned on, can it be turned off? I wish we knew the answers to help all of our kids.

Is heart racing one of the side effects? I have problems with edema which are worsened by Singulair and Zyrtec. Vivid Night terrors depression, anxiety are standard also made worse. Headaches extremely high blood pressure and nausea. I have been off the singulair for a month. I am Zyrtec Free as well.
I too will rely on my inhalers. This drug should not ever be prescribed for children.

My 9 year old son only took Singuliar for about 5 weeks. He had side effects almost immediately, he was so aggressive, angry all the time, headaches, stomach ache and feeling like he was going to throw up, bad nightmares, a horrible rash, biting his nails, not focusing in school and got into trouble all the time, no appetite but his little body seem puffy all over. He has been off this medication for 3 months and he is still not 100%. He cries at little things and still has the same rash and with meds it is not going away. He had to change schools as he still was having problems in school. He just seems like he is not the same little boy and something is just not right. I do not know what to do at this point. Doctors say it should be out of his system by now, but if it is than there is permanent damage to his brain as he is just not the sharp little guy he was. We have had to take him out of all sports. Anyone else having these same problems???

Who administers this site? I posted a side effect last night after I registered and then this morning I got an email saying there was a reply to my posting and when I tried to log in, my account was inactive and my posting had been removed, as had the reply to my posting. I don't know if it is because I put a link the an online reporting tool where the FDA is compiling feedback from people/or their children who have experienced terrible side-effects. Here is the link again and I urge you all to report your cases: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/early_comm/montelukast.htm

My son is 3.5 and has been on Singular for 2 months and just like all of the other stories about the other young children posted here, he is a different kid after being on Singular. Last night was the first night I took him off of it. All of the side-effects that are mentioned here are the same ones my son is experiencing, nightmares (screaming in the night), hyper, aggressive, reliving injuries from days past, the day care telling me that they now have concerns about how different he has been lately and the even used the term "bad behavior". They said he is hyper, he screams, not listening, aggressive. He is a favorite at day care since he is so loving, polite and kind. I know all parents say that, but pretty much anyone who has met him compliments me on how well behaved he is. I am even nervous to have people over since he seems out of control and I have found myself ensuring people that he isn't normally like this. I have taken him off as of last night and I am hoping he will get back to his old happy-go-lucky self soon. Does anyone know how long it can take to get this poison out of their system? I pray that there are no permanent side-effects.

PRAISE GOD for all of the stories shared on this site. And I've only read page one. My husband called me back today to say that he "googled" Singulair and found some interesting things (to say the least). While we were on the phone, my three-year-old was in the throes of another meltdown, kicking me, hitting me, throwing whatever he could get his hands on. My older two boys, 8 and 12, were ordered, once again, to lock themselves in their rooms to avoid being hurt by him. He will throw stuff, bite, hit, kick, and, at times, spit on us. This disturbing behavior is rather constant lately. He is like a mad man. Very scary.

Caleb has been on Singulair since about age 1, when he was diagnosed with chronic sinusitis and allergic rhinitis. Unfortunately, we initially equated his rages with the onset of "terrible two's" and dismissed his behavior to a chorus of "oh, he's just a boy!" My husband felt, at times, that I was just not disciplining him properly. I intuitively knew, having raised two other boys, that this behavior was abnormal, even for severe tantrums. We received a variety of suggestions from his pediatrician, caregivers, and grandparents, all to no avail. We have several calm days but things always deteriorate back to insanity. He is VERY unpredictable.

Last Thanksgiving, Caleb (age 3) was kicked out of his daycare setting for biting and hitting. Once I witnessed him run as fast as he could into a group of playing children, falling on them, kicking them. He would walk up to sweet little girls half his size and push them down as hard as he could. It was a nightmare. My husband had to take 3 weeks of leave to stay home with him while we prayed and searched for new care. We had him evaluated and he was staffed into the "developmentally delayed" program in our school district (for poor adaptive skills and personal/social behaviors). We recently had his tonsils removed, hoping that some of the sinusitis symptoms and behaviors would improve. They really haven't. This past week we have been looking into the Feingold diet. We have been PRAYING for answers. The last time we spoke with his developmental neurologist, he recommended a trial of Risperdol (sp?). We feel like more meds would be like a band-aid, not a solution. But his rage is becoming unbearable.

So, that brings us to today. I was so moved by your accounts. Unlike so many of you, we don't have much of a "before" to go by. But his "after" sounds VERY much like what you have all described. It's probably the pure rage that I see on his face that is the scariest part. And at the same time he seems desperate and vulnerable. He truly seems to snap. If we had pool chairs, I can just picture him throwing them (citing another post :).

We are going to throw the Singulair away. He will never, ever have it again. Even if this isn't the cause of his problems, I certainly don't want to exacerbate any behaviors with this toxic medicine. I will post again just to let anyone who's interested know if this changes his behavior. I am praying that my entry will help someone else, just as all the other postings have helped me. I have renewed hope.

I have copied many of your comments to a Word document. I will be sharing it with a high ranking officer at the medical clinic/hospital on Keesler Air Force Base. I hope that he will discuss this with his staff and that perhaps we can at least make a difference here. I, too, will be filing a report with the FDA. I can only pray that this medicine has not permanently altered his developing brain.

Well, we just got out of the ENT and he couldn't believe that his ped put him on Singulair. He said he didn't like it, it wasn't a good drug, and hadn't heard of many good things about it. He also told me to take my son off immediately, to bad I already had. He also wanted me to put him back on Zyrtec but only when needed, not every day like he had been taking it. Told him about how the neb. had been talked about so he listened to my little one's lungs and he said that they are all clear and there is no need for one. While I was in this appointment, his ped. called. She said that she had never heard of any side effects with this and she wanted him to stay on it for a week to see if it worked or not. Sorry we aren't doing that, we had four doses of it and that is more than enough to say we aren't staying with it. This is just his first full day off the med and I shouldn't get all worked up but while in the waiting room to see the ENT we had two huge fits and even hit his head on one of the chairs because he didn't get his way. The ENT said to give him about a week to go threw "detox" and get it out of his system and then he should be back to himself.

Also, on top of the big mood changes and swings we didn't sleep good last night and had another fit of rage in the waiting room of the ENT. Not fun at all.

My daughter is 4 and has allergies. Last year she was briefly on Zyrtec and I immediately noticed that she became very aggressive. This year her doctor prescribed Singular. She has been on Singular for 8 days. Her appetite has dwindled. She has complained that her stomach hurt which I thought was due to not eating. Last night, she had nightmares - screaming out in a panic. This afternoon she couldn't sleep. This evening she fell asleep in my arms. Suddenly she sat up with glazed eyes wide open and began to relive when she fell and hurt her hand a few days earlier. I thought she was sleep talking with her eyes open. She was in a total panic but appeared to be sleeping. Yet, when her dad approached she held out her arms for him to pick her up. She eventually fell back asleep only to awaken two more times with similar sceneros played out. I could not get these scenes out of my mind. Given the previous experience with Zyrtec, I looked over the side effects of Singular and the word Hallucination jumped out at me. I spoke with a pharmacist who was not aware of anything I have since read on this site. I decided to Google Singular Side Effects and came upon this site. Tears well in my eyes after I read posting after posting. Thank you, thank you to all who have posted their experiences. You have saved my daughter and our family from a true nightmare. Bless you and your family.

This is my story. My daughter 14, the most precious child ever born. She has a wonderful disposition always happy, loving, and determined to succeed in whatever she does. She just brightens everyone’s world.
She suffers from severe seasonal allergies and mild asthma. She takes approximately seven allergy/asthma medicines a day during peak season. Over the past two years she has been taking Singular as one of her medicines. Being 14, sick of taking medicine she would not take the Singular on a regular basis. Approximately four months ago “MOM” says, if you take nothing else take your Singular it will work both for the seasonal allergies and your asthma. She has been taking this regularly four the past four months.
She became paranoid, she became a compulsive eater and bites the skin on her fingers. She would eat and chew on her fingers at the same time, until she choked. She had so much anger, she could not even go to the mall without temper tantrums.(As a child she never had any tantrums ) Always afraid. Severe depression set in. She would cry at a moments notice. She would say, I have a very sad life, sad very sad, nothing makes me like this, I’m just sad. She felt she should go live with the homeless people. I asked her why, she didn’t know, she felt maybe that’s where she belonged. Nightmares and sleepless nights.
She needs help quickly. Before calling the Doctor, I went on the internet and entered Singular and depression and I found 1900 entries, all people telling me what I was experiencing. Could this possibly be the answer for us? I called her Dr and told him what I thought, he said he has never had anyone that this has happened to. He hoped it was the answer, but really didn’t think is. He said if it wasn’t the answer she would need therapy, mood stabilizer and Prozac.

Its day four off Singular, she smiling, no tears today, no temper tantrums, looking forward to school next week, wants to play volleyball next year, singing in the car,
I hear that happy voice again.(Hi, Mommy!!!!!!) Every once in a while a glaze comes over her face. She isn’t a 100% back, but I know it is coming.

To all the people that don’t have the happy ending, I will pray for you and hold you in my heart forever.

June 2, 2008

HI,

As with many others I found singulair to be a miracle with asthma. No more rescue inhalers. I am not sure which of my current meds is causing the very vivid, often gruesome dreaming I have been having as THREE of them show this as a side effect. I am referring to Cymbalta, Xanax and Singulair. It may be that the combination of the three is just too much and is causing brain toxicity of some sort. I started cutting down the cymbalta, and also the Xanax days ago. I found myself still waking up remembering vivid dreams that I would rather forget. I remember them all like they just happened in living color and detail, days and weeks later. At first I thought it was interesting, but now I just want to FORGET THEM, anyone have ideas???? Help!!! ( I also developed depression and anxiety after being on singulair for several years which is how I ended up with the two additional meds.

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.

hi, im not sure what to do. my 3 1/2 year old daughter was today given the prescription for singulair. i voiced my concerns to the doctor after my friend telling me its no good due to the side effects.she said that there are risks and side effects with any drug you take but for some reason i don't feel right about this. don't doctors know better than this. anyway Would like to know if all the people who take singulair suffer some sort of side affects or is it minimal? or going by this side it looks like its probably best not to give it to her at all.

My son (27 months old) has been taking Singular for about a month and a half now to treat his asthma. His asthma is doing great, but since he started taking Singular he has been having awful nightmares. At the suggestion of his doctor we started giving him his medication in the morning instead of at night to see what happened. That just started effecting his naps and night-time sleep.
The doctor is now suggesting taking him off the Singular to see if he nightmares stop. I'm hoping everything improves after stopping Singular, but don't know what to do about the asthma.

I was put on Singulair about 2 years ago because of my COPD. No allergies were ever mentioned by my Doctor. This site has been a god send for me.
Since starting Singulair I have been put on Digoxin for an irregular heart beat that I never had before. I have been put on Gabapentin for leg pain and cramping in my feet whenever I put my feet up or laid down to TRY and get to sleep. I have been put on so many pain killers for back pain, leg pain, neck pain I can't even count them all. I won't take them, they make me so sick. Now I find that I wake up with a headache every morning, feeling sick..oh yes, I was given medication for nausea also. And I don't want to forget the six months of experiencing never ending dizzy spells. That was another medication to ad to the list of ALL THE MEDICATIONS I HAVE TAKEN OVER THE PAST 2 YEARS for the side effects of Singulair. I stopped taking it a couple of days ago and I woke up this morning feeling so good. Oh, lets not forget the Xanax, Prozac and Cymbalta for depression.......OMG! I'm looking forward to see how many of these medications I can toss now that I've stopped taking Singulair. I just wish I had found this site two years ago, oh yeah, I am on Advair also. I've been, lets say "in a chronic bad mood" too. Some would say a "B". I've already noticed a difference there too.

I am so glad I found this web site I just wish I had found it BEFORE I took my Singulair this evening. I am a 54 year old mother of 12 year old twin boys and I only just begun taking Singulair 9 days ago for lingering asthma problems I could not shake. My difficulties with Singulair started right away with headaches (though I didn't realize what was going on till I found this site) and by day three I was starting to have the dreadful nightmares that everyone is describing. Now it is also obvious that an extreme depression has settled over me and seems to be getting worse every day. I feel like I am living in the shell of myself and almost as a third party observe the awful way I have been treating my family. It makes me feel so miserable all I want to do is to be by myself, shut down and sleep. I read in the other letters about body/back aches but not about what I have been experiencing. Just a few days ago - terrible leg pains/cramps began pulsate along the back of my upper legs and sometimes the lower back. I am stiff and uncomfortable during the day but at night it is terrible. Each night it has gotten worse. The pain in my legs is nearly unbearable even as I write this and is what propelled me to get back out of bed at midnight and to the computer and to this site. Thank goodness and thank everyone who has written - it is obvious you have saved me much pain and grief - hopefully my letter will help someone else. But for right now this six month supply of Singulair is going in the trash immediately!
Lauri

I have a three year old son who has severe allergies. He's been taking singulair for 2 years on & off just in the allergy season. He started taking, singulair again in the beginning of April. One morning he woke up and both eyes were really swollen and red, I called his doctor's office and told them i thought he had pink eye, after 2 different drops and no change I brought him into the doctor's to see if it could be his allergies, and they agreed and started him on Zyrtec. I still was not impressed with the results so i brought him back yet again to see if we could see a specialist. Instead they put him on nasonex to try.
In the beginning of March I started to see a change in my usual happy fun loving son. He was scared to sleep in his bed, waking up in the middle of the night from bad dreams, uncontrollable screaming fits that would last up to an hour, saying he wants a Boo Boo. At first we thought it could be jealously over his new brother, or maybe something at his school.
Then i found this website and everything clicked, how scary it must be for a child to have these horrible thoughts and not be able to understand or stop them. What are the people at merck thinking??
Can any one tell me when the symptoms stop. He's been off for a week and we see some improvements. But he still has these fits with almost an OCD tendency to them (mainly when he's overtired), stomach pains, lack of appetite.

My nephew is 7 and has been on Singulair for probably 4 years. His symptoms developed over time but recently have exploded. He has epilepsy so most of the things that he has experienced has been blamed on that. However, today his doctor took him off singulair and said he believes his symptoms are caused from the drug. He started having head drop seizures, fell out of his desk and cut his face one day. He has also been depressed, had severe anxiety attacks for the past 8 months. Several months ago, he started having such severe nightmares that it is almost impossible to get him to go to bed and go to sleep. Recently he began "seeing dead people" and "monsters" that we trying to kill him even when he was awake. He has also cried many nights with leg cramps and severe stomach pain. I will update this page in two - three weeks to let you know if these problems go away now that we have stopped the singulair.

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?

This is a follow-up. I have posted about our experience before, but to summarize: 6 year old boy on Singulair for over three years for Asthma. Drug worked wonders, but side effects developed so slowly that we thought those were "phases" that would go away. Side effects were just as everyone else reported: nightmares, fears, depression/sadness (we even went to a child psychologist since we thought this behavior was all due to father's deployment), aggressiveness, crying at the drop off a hat (like a 2 year old, not age appropriate), attention deficit, school performance dropped, and also, at the very end, obsessive compulsive behavior.
We stopped Singulair as soon as we heard about the FDA investigation (on NPR, about 6 to 7 weeks ago). Asthma has not worsened, thank goodness, so we make due with the Flovent for now. Most of the side effects were less prominent after some time, however the obsessive compulsive behavior stopped only a few days ago. We have better days, we have worse days, but slowly the better days outnumber the bad, aggressive, and negative ways.
What I read again and again in the postings is that we all assumed our children entered a bad "phase." A phase that just got worse and never ended!
Reading about the very same side effects in our children, over and over again, alarmed me. Taking my son off the Singulair and seeing the improvements, some faster some slower, totally convinced me. I will never ever have Singulair in my house again.

Our son was put on Singular almost 2 years ago to help with his "moderate" asthma. It has been the hardest 2 years for our family. My son who was already very senstive became very depressed. He showed no interest in anything. He was always sad and very down on himself. He had awful night terrors/nightmares. He didn't want to go to school or do anything. We continued to sign him up for sports/piano/scouts and it was a battle to get him to go. He always had headaches, which I thought were because of dehydration and made him drink water. We had him seeing a therapist trying to help him with the sleeping problems and the depression. We switched his room with his sister to physically make him closer to us at night. He was anxious and very irritable. If something went wrong, he couldn't handle it and had complete meltdowns. If he didn't eat anything for a while and his blood sugar got low, he was uncontrollable. To add to the problem was he was never hungry so I would have to force him to eat something about every 2-3 hours to prevent the meltdown.

The good news is that he has been off of Singular for over a month now and he is a new kid. He is excited to go to practice and will ask his dad to play catch with him in the yard. He is happier and we have not heard once "this is the worst day ever" which we had heard all the time before. He has not had one headache and seems to have a little bit of his appetite back. He is happy and holding his head high. Now, he still doesn't want to go to school (what 8 year old boy does), but he doesn't fight me when I tell him it is time to go. He does not have the meltdowns or the irritability. He even showed some empathy to my husband last week.

My husband and I are amazed at how different he is. We are also very upset that for almost 2 years we made his life miserable by forcing him to take this drug. I think for kids that are already sensitive to things it heightens everything! I am filing a complaint with the FDA and spreading the news to all my family and friends. I hope this information helps! I know I have learned a lot from reading these posts.

I spent the weekend reading about the development of Singulair. The early studies recognized that the first phase of the acute asthma response bronco-constriction was probably not caused by leukotrienes. They identified histamines and prostaglandins as the probable sources. I don't think that changed because the Singulair literature states that it should not be considered as a treatment for that. Leukotrienes were a source of inflammation caused by eosinophils and mast cells present in greater numbers (than normal) in airway tissue. So, it was beneficial to find a way to decrease that.

The cysLT1 receptor was identified as source of the signals that tell the cells to produce leukotriene. The receptor, a gene, consist of 337 (they think) amino acids. They modified a compound that would bind to that receptor thus blocking the cells ability to produce leukotrienes. This compound is very specific. It was formulated to bind to the "model" receptor. This compound will not even bind to cysLT receptor sub-types. (That is the good thing.) There is an enormous amount of research that discusses the genetic variability of the chemical reactions that occur in the leukotriene (calling it this for simplicity) pathway. We are also seeing that a number of researchers would like to use gene profiles to predict whether patients will respond favorably to different asthma/allergy drugs. ALL PATIENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW IF IT IS INHERENT THAT SOME PEOPLE WILL NOT RESPOND TO SINGULAIR OR RESPOND ADVERSELY.

There are many studies from the 1998 era that conclude that montelukast is not effective for everyone. Those researchers stated that it can be predicted that those people who are going to respond favorably will do that within the first 14 days or so. That conclusion would be consistent with a genetic component for efficacy and safety of Singulair. Those doctors concluded that those who did not respond within that time frame should not take Singulair for fear of harming them. That makes good sense.

The Italian researchers wanted to know if there was more going on than blocking leukotrienes in the action of montelukast. They set up a "test tube" study regarding montelukast, the cysLT1 receptor, and some t-cells that they selected. Why? Researchers always have something on their minds. They observed the death of these particular t-cells.

Montelukast is a quinoline. We basically know of quinilines and quinolones as compounds that were invented as broad spectrum antibiotics. They work because they interference with bacterial DNA so they cannot replicate themselves. Montelukast is a quinoline modified to bind with the cysLT1 receptor (a gene) and prevent that gene from activating. That's consistent with what a quinoline/quinolone does.

So what does montelukast do in blood plasma if it does not bind to the receptor because of genetic mis-match? (If montelukast does bind, then a chemical reaction has occurred and the liver will break down the by-products. Montelukast metabolized in 10-12 hours.) What happens if it doesn't bind? How long before it breaks down? Does it produce toxic by-products?

I want to know what happens to lymphocytes such as t-cells just because montelukast is a quinoline. Maybe nothing but what's up with the Italians researchers? I want to know if montelukast has the capability to interfere with lymphocytes who can clone themselves. That could be a good thing under circumstances when these lymphocytes are causing inflammation. But it could be a bad thing in the case of normal individuals with no problems.

I want to know if the bad side effects are due to the fact that the body has to break down and metabolize a quinoline that did not bind to the receptor for which it was created. The side effects of Singulair are strangely similar to what is observed in the quinolones such as levaquin. I have not as yet been able to compare montelukast as a quinoline to levaquin as a quinolone. I am hoping to find something on these categories. There may be no reason to worry that they cause similar damage. But frankly, I think that there is. There is some terrible chit happening to some people. The scariest is the neurological damage.

All of these questions would be in the everybody pharma knows to ask category. I don't know where the answers are. I haven't found them as of yet. Maybe there are no answers. We have to remember that Singulair and Vioxx were released in the same year. They have continued to be drugs under the current executive management of Merck. If the Vioxx marketing promoters had their ghost writers, why not the Singulair marketing promoters. The genetic component appears to be widely accepted but we haven't heard one thing about even that.

I think that it is sad that maybe the marketing of Singulair as one stop shopping for asthma/allergies may have destroyed the original concept. I really think from reading the original work that they knew that they couldn't engineer a drug for one size fits all. Everybody gets harmed when information is withheld.

Shame on the allergist who yelled at the mother who wanted to discuss issues. Does he know exactly who is allergic to Singulair and who isn't? Get him a dunce hat. Just because Singulair is marketed for allergies does not mean that you cannot be allergic to it. See the power of Madison Avenue? The ad agencies focus group these drugs to death. The ad agencies cleverly craft the product information. A good piece of legislation would be to prohibit consumer drugs ads.

Up until today I was unaware of any side effects. I have been taking singulair for about a week and I felt fine, until yesterday. Yesterday, I felt anxious and on the edge. I felt as if I was going to blow up if anyone said anything that I did not like. I was feeling as if my heart was going to beat right through my chest. Then when it was time for me to go to bed, I had trouble falling asleep. I awoke the next morning with vivid memories of nightmares that I had throughout the night. Even after I awoke I felt in intense rage. I called my mom later on in the day and I mentioned to her that I was taking Singulair for my allergies. She told me to stop taking that drug immediately. She told me that she just heard last week that it may cause some people to commit suicide. I'm glad I mentioned that to my mom, if I hadn't I may be worse off. Unfortunately I did feel as if the pills helped my allergies, however at what cost? Possibly my life...

I'm an 18 year old male and I've been taking Singulair for years; I don't even remember when I started taking it. I've had chronic sinusitis my whole life, and use a Singulair 10mg/ Allegra 180mg combo to control it. I never gave it a second thought. From my adolescent years on, I've been able to sleep (if undisturbed) for 15, 16+ hours a night, and have always felt like I was in a fog during everyday life. Getting out of bed has always been a terrible problem for me.

Throughout high school, I became progressively more depressed and apathetic toward school work, to the point where I dropped a number of classes my junior year. Got put on Prozac for a while, it helped a great deal with the depression, and seemed to give me enough energy to get through the week. I discontinued it after a year or so, everything was going okay (aside from mood swings and tiredness- explained away as symptoms of my age/hormones/going to bed too late), and then I went to college.

I had a mild depression that I think most people get upon leaving home for the first time, but the real problem was anxiety; I had a number of anxiety attacks, and decided to transfer to a school closer to home. I started Celexa and therapy- the celexa seems to take the edge off, but I fear its making me even more tired than before.

I've just heard about the whole Singulair controversy, and I am not taking it from here on out. I really hope that this whole ordeal was brought on primarily by the Singulair. After a month or two, I'll repost to report whether the symptoms went away.

I just read a few days ago that Merck is trying to get approval for a new drug. It is a combo of Singulair and the Shering pharm. co. drug Claritin. Isn't it nice to know that while we are suffering from this drug, Merck and another pharmaceutical company are trying to make more money on a drug that is supposed to be under investigation. Fortunately, the FDA is not approving it along with a few other drugs Merck is trying to push. This shows us how concerned they are with public health. They would sell us arsenic if they could get approval for it.

I took Singulair for a little over a year. In that time I have quit my job of six years, dropped college classes that I was previously excited about, and generally didn't give a damn any more about anything. My dreams became dark and horribly violent nightmares leaving me shaken throughout the day. I couldn't concentrate and was thinking I should seek professional help. My wife was worried that it was her and I couldn't figure out what my problem was.

About 6 or 7 weeks ago I heard there had been links to mood swings and depression from taking Singulair and immediately stopped taking it. It sounds cloche but it was as if the clouds parted and the sun began to shine again. I have become much more like my old happy and motivated self. My wife has noticed a huge difference as well as my friends and former coworkers. I am still having a little bit of a hard time staying on task but each day gets better and better. I sleep much better and the nightmares have stopped.

I think I'd rather deal with the allergy symptoms rather than take the FDA sanctioned poisons put out by firms like Merck. Their practices are criminally negligent but nothing will probably come of it because the regulatory agencies are in their pockets. It's all about the bottom line profits--public health be damned.

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

I usually have allergy headaches in the morning which would go away after taking 1 Benadryl w/ Tylenol. About a week ago my doctor started me on Singulair because she was concerned about me taking Tylenol daily. The last few days I've had terrible headaches that linger most of the day. (I've continued to take the Benadryl w/ Tylenol to try to help the headaches, but it's just not working.) Today is day 7 with the Singulair, and the headaches seem to be getting worse. Are headaches common with Singulair?

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

I don't work for another pharmaceutical company. I don't have any competing interests. People keep asking me that. Why? Is everything about competition and money? I am getting sick of being asked that.

Frankly, I don't see how anybody could go up against all of the high powered lawyers that Merck can hire. If anybody wanted to speak about how this could happen, Merck would have people going through their doctoral dissertations looking for plagerism. Plaintiffs would have Merck detectives outside their houses hiding in the bushes. Merck private detectives would interview their friends and teachers.

All I wanted to do was to show parents and patients that they are not the only complaints. These complaints have been reported before. Whether they resulted in any serious warnings to Merck doesn't really make a difference because people know how they feel or how their child feels on Singulair.

There is nothing that we can do, in my opinion, but to believe in ourselves. We might trying writing to Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands that the American sufferers must have Dutch brains--which allow montelukast to penetrate the blood brain barrier and can she do anything for us? This is ridiculous that we should be getting these responses from doctors.

From the Netherlands 2006.
In three of the cases a positive dechallenge was seen.The fact that the patients (except for one) did not suffer from depressive symptoms before they started montelukast, the short latency, and recovery after withdrawal of the drug all strengthen our hypothesis that depressive symptoms are an ADR related to the use of montelukast. According to the Marketing Authorisation Holder of montelukast, depression will be added to the product information.

Mechanism: The mechanism of montelukast-induced depressive symptoms is unknown. However, montelukast has earlier been associated with adverse drug reactions such as abnormal dreaming, nightmares, hallucinations, agitation with aggressive behavior, irritability and restlessness, which suggests that montelukast can penetrate the blood brain barrier and exert an effect in the brain .

http://www.lareb.nl/documents/kwb_2006_4_montel.pdf.

My son is 21 month old and he's been taking singulair for two months now, and I can notice that after he started taking it he is having nightmares. Every night he starts crying while sleeping without any reason. So I am wondering could it be possible that these happens because of singulair just in 2 months or there is something else. Doctor told us to continue giving singulair for 6 months, Shall I stop giving it or not?

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

I am starting a new post in the hopes that others will see what I am trying to say about the delayed reaction in those that took Singulair for allergies.

If it is consistent that Singulair does not stop allergy symptoms immediately, then the pathways that eventually stop allergy symptoms involve a change in the mast cell function, development and migration (or some combination).

I asked this question for a reason. Are allergy symptoms stopped immediatedly. My question below:

I have a question that will help me continuing looking for information. I can understand that in the case of asthma that Singulair would provide immediate relief. If it is used for seasonal allergies or other allergies without asthma, does it work right away or does it take a period of days or weeks to be effective? If it takes time, could you tell me how long it took in your situation?

My thinking was going in the right direction if the answer below is consistent of everyone or most.

about 2 hours ago on Apr 11, 2008 by catherineevans, #7045
My granddaughter was put on Singulair for allergy symptoms without asthma. Itching, red eyes, terrible congestion, etc. dark circles under her eyes all the time. When we first put her on this, we didn't see any consistent results for 2-3 weeks, then it seemed to 'kick in.' I don't know if this helps. By the way, she was 9, now she's almost 12 and was immediately taken off when this story came out 2 weeks ago.

Then after seeing one response, I gave my reason for asking.

I asked this question because I have a theory of how montelukast really works for allergies as compared to how it works for asthma.

Asthma is a hyper-sensitive state that gets going because the mast cell has a receptor (the leukotriene receptor that Singulair blocks) that sends a signal along a pathway that causes lung tissue to have that extreme response - the wheezing, the airway constriction.

On the mast cell is another receptor the histamine receptor that causes the secretions that make our noses runs and and stuff up. This is not the same immune response as the asthma response. When I saw a post that somebody's doctor said that Singulair is an anti-histamine, NO it is NOT.

So if Singulair does not block histamine immediately and your child's allergies did not go away immediately, then maybe Singulair is working through some other means such as changing normal mast cell homeostasis.
I know that this seems like "what does this mean?" I am really writing this hoping to God that there are people reading this site that know what I am talking about.

Thank you so much for responding. Your answer actually told me what I wanted to know and confirmed my hypothesis. More answers will help. I hope others respond.

PLEASE respond about the length of time that allergies disappeared if you took Singulair for allergies.

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

My 6 year old son has been on Singulair for 2 years and I have noticed a big change in his behavior but it all started with leg cramps and falling down alot..I told my dr about what was going on but she told me that it was nothing to worry about that it is growing pains..Before he started the on the singulair he was always a happy go lucky kid never had problems with him back talking or ever really getting angry. Now that I read all these reports these are the problems I have with him now:
My child has never offered to hit, kick or slap me but in the past year he has gotten more aggressive not only toward me but others as well..
He is fearful of people now thinking that they are being mean to him or picking him out to pick on or make fun of.
He has problems of headaches on a regular basis but just thought it was due to his sinus infections...
I have also noticed that my child has started hurting himself like punching even slapping himself in the face when he gets really angery or fustrated about things..
Sometimes he has problems with nightmares but not that much..
He also has problems with stomach pain as well...
My concern is taking my son off Singulair with his asthma being under control right now and he just recently had sinus surgery but I think it will be the best thing for him just because I want my sweet child back not the aggressive and abusive child he is now.... That is why first thing in the morning he will be taking him to his dr to find another medication to put him on and take him off the Singulair....

I just visited Merck's Singulair website and spent a long time really, really thinking about everything that they had for physicians. After thinking about the pathways for myself from the standpoint of chemical interactions, I wanted to know what was explained to the physician. I approached the site from the standpoint of -- if one of my patients was overdosing, how could I recognize that. What would happen? Merck's site has diagrams and movies on the nasal passages and the lungs. You get a picture of a mast cell producing-- doing it's thing. That was it. And on every page, this...

SINGULAIR is indicated for relief of symptoms of allergic rhinitis (seasonal allergic rhinitis in adults and children aged 2 years and older and perennial allergic rhinitis in adults and children aged 6 months and older).

In clinical trials, SINGULAIR was generally well tolerated, with a safety profile similar to that of placebo. Adverse events varied by age. The most commonly reported adverse events, occurring at a frequency of ≥1% and at an incidence greater than placebo, regardless of causality assessment, were sinusitis, upper respiratory infection, sinus headache, cough, epistaxis, headache, otitis media, pharyngitis, and increased ALT.

SINGULAIR is contraindicated in patients with hypersensitivity to any component of this product.

Okay, let's talk about headache at greater than 1%. Headache is 18-19%. How do I know that from what they put on their website?

It might be a very good question to ask your doctor if they could go to the Singulair website and be able to know what would happen if they had a group of children or adults that liked to take pills. Yum, one of good, more is better. I had no clue from that website if there was a risk of overdose or not.

This is not my area. I am trying to help. I am essentially as in the dark as you are.

Both my children, ages 4 and 7, are currently taking Singulair chewable tablets for their seasonal allergies. They have been doing so for about three months. At first, I was not consistent in giving them the medicine. It wasn't until recently that I decided I should give it to them as prescribed, once daily before bedtime. During this time I heard about an incident linking this medication to a suicide. I shrugged it off thinking this could not happen to my children. Little did I know that this medication has other serious side effects linked to it. For the past few weeks, my own 7 year old daughter has experienced many of those side effects including stomache aches, headaches, trouble falling asleep, irritability, mood swings, crying spells, and traumatic nightmares. She used to be a fun loving child who loved waking up to go to school. Now she does not want to get up in the morning and hates going to school. She cries easily over the smallest thing and complains frequently of headaches and stomach aches. My son on the other hand has become overly aggressive and I had concluded that maybe his video games or cartoons were to blame. Well, today I found your website and I will take them both off the medication indefinitely! Their allergies were not as severe to begin with so I figure that they should do okay without it. I will probably look into more natural/ herbal remedies to soothe them when they do get their allergies. I will definitley be reporting back as to their results.

My son is 8 and he has been on singulair for at least three years, maybe four. When I heard about the side effects a few weeks ago, I stopped his medication right away. I have since learned that it should be tapered off, but won't put him back on to do that. He had so many of the depression, I hate myself, everybody hates me, facial tic, stomach ache symptoms . . . Now he is almost two weeks off of singulair and he is throwing screaming fits, kicking, threatening, uncontrollable for up to two hours and more! Is this a side effect of coming off of the medication? Has anyone else had this experience? Please email me at amy-weaver4@sbcglobal.net - I'd really like to hear if anyone else has experienced these symptoms. Thank you! Amy

After reading the other posts, I was flabbergasted at the side effects posted. My sons 8 and 10 have been on this medication for two plus years after seeing a specialist for asthma and allergies. During that time, my younger son was sent to "family therapy" for behavioral problems at school. Bedwetting and nightmares began for both boys, as well as stomach aches and a huge weight increase. They are both active and in sports. Upon reading this information on your post, I was floored when I read another child said "My brain makes me do it". My youngest son says that all the time in response to bad behavior and I never understood why he would say such a thing. After talking to him and explaining that I was taking him off the meds immediately, my older son overheard the conversation and said he wanted to go off them as well right away. He explained he's been sad since taking them and didn't know why as there is nothing to be sad about. We are a close knit family who spends all their time together. Singulair has helped my oldest son's asthma, but I'm so upset at the other side effects and not having this information from the FDA. I've spend thousands of dollars in family therapy only to find out it's the drug my physican prescribes that causes the problem. Do not take Singulair!

I am updating as my almost 7 year old son has been off Singulair for a little over a week now. He seemed to actually go through a "withdrawal" period for about 2-3 days. He was very emotional with his moods swinging wildly, giggling uncontrollably one minute, and then crying at the drop of a hat. Thank goodness we did this over a weekend so his teachers didn't have to deal with this! His stomach aches continue, but they don't seem to have the intensity they did before and this morning he even said to me that his stomach hurt and he was trying to figure out if he was just hungry or had an actual tummy ache. I gave him a small breakfast and he said, "Yup, I was just hungry, it's gone now." Before, he couldn't ever tell if it was a real stomach ache or if he was hungry. His stomach just always hurt. He did have two nights in a row (the first two nights w/o Singulair) with really BAD nightmares--even came into our room crying both nights. Since then, he hasn't woken once during the night. My husband and I can't remember the last time we went a whole week without our son ending up in our bed!! No complaints of headaches, leg pains, no sinus infections, etc. So far, I would say that he is getting better--the side effects, at least. Because our son is severely asthmatic however, we do take peak flow measurements 3x every day. Since going off Singulair, his peak flow hasn't been as good. Not terrible, but not as good.

Interestingly, I spoke with both our pediatric pulmonologist and our pediatrician's office. Our pulmonologist was very supportive in going off the medication as long as he had other controller meds (which he does). Our regular doctor's office has two pediatricians, one was very interested in what our pulmonologist had to say, what our son's side effects were, and was supportive of our pulmonologist's decision, etc. (She's the one we always see.) The nurse told me that the other ped. was not recommending that ANY of her patients stop taking Singulair. The ignorance of some doctors--lesson learned for me. Never see that pediatrician!!

The tough decision for us will be what to do if our son's asthma gets worse with recurrent pneumonia and hospitalizations for URI's returning. We are hoping that doesn't happen and that we can find other ways to help control his asthma! I still feel that Singulair was the most effective in controlling his asthma--just don't think we can put him through all the stuff that seems to come with the Singulair!

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

My 14 year-od son was on Singulair for approx. two months. During that time he lost interest in activities he had enjoyed and seemed angry most of the time. He was constantly moving and was hard to communicate with because he seemed unable to focus. He also started having nightmares. I attributed these changes to puberty. However, I took him off Singulair about a week ago. Almost immediately his behavior changed. He is back to his old self. He is calmer, happier, more focused and enjoying activities again. Unfortunately, while he was on Singulair, he was nearly free of allergy symptoms for the first time since he was two years old. He has used Rhinocort, Clariton and Zyrtec. He is now back on Clariton.

Both my son and I were on Singulair. As of Sat March 31st we both stopped taking it. My 6 yr boy has been on it for apprx 3 1/2 years for allergies along with nasonex and claritin when needed. He started pre k after being off the singulair for the summer. His first 3 weeks of school had no complaints. 3 weeks into school he started singulair and teacher immediately noticed the difference and brought it up to dr's who said it had nothing to do with his behavior. Over the years he has experienced, problems with excess urination after taking dose at night causing exploding pullups.. changed to day time and that helped somewhat. nightmares/ hyper /moody, irritable, leg pain, stomach pain,angry outburst (he says his brain made him do it), headaches, stuttering,sinus infections that he finally had his adnenoids removed in Feb.. He started kindergarten last Sept and it has been a nightmare..I tried to take him off Singulair in Oct but due to his enlarged adenoids his allergy symptons became so much worse I put him back on. The last few days where up and down as the Singulair was coming out of his system but I was seeing improvements.. Well I decided today to remove him also off the nasonex as I have read similar side effects about the nasonex. He had a pretty good morning today and went to school and came home for the FIRST time all year with smileys for the entire day!! I am overwhelmed with emotion! So happy that he is coming out of the fog and guilt that I have been giving him this medication and didn't follow my Mommy instinct to stop it years ago! I had side effects as well to the point people were telling me my personality had changed. I was irritable, short of patience and having alot of headaches. The last few weeks I was having days of depression and crying over little things especially with the stress of what my son was going through.... I am also coming out of the fog and happy to be back!

I posted before regarding a study that suggested that montelukast should be studied for possible psychiatric adverse drug reactions in children. I could only find the abstract. I have now located the entire article. I originally thought the study was British but it was done in Sweden. I am going to make an e-mail file. If you would like the full text of this article to take to your doctor, I will send it to you.

Individual case safety reports in children in commonly used drug groups – signal detection

Gertrud Brunlöf , Carina Tukukino and Susanna M Wallerstedt
Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Regional Pharmacovigilance Centre, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, SE-413 45 Göteborg, Sweden

BMC Clinical Pharmacology 2008, 8:1doi:10.1186/1472-6904-8-

Here is the discussion and conclusion.

Discussion
ICSRs were present in 19 of the 30 most commonly used drug groups in children. The number of ICSRs varied between the groups of drugs, the two most reported drug groups being the leukotriene receptor antagonists and centrally acting sympathomimetics. The reporting of new drugs should be expected to be larger compared with old drugs, according to the Swedish instructions concerning ADR reporting. The leukotriene receptor antagonist montelukast was registered in 1998. Consequently, no extra attention to ADRs during montelukast treatment was demanded in 2005. Centrally acting sympathomimetics, on the other hand, were introduced later and the number of ICSRs may be influenced by the increased focus on this drug group. Another explanation for increased reporting rates for certain drug groups may be media attention.

ADRs during treatment with montelukast seem to occur predominantly in small children, the majority in the present study being <15 years old, whereas children according to European Medicines Agency include 0 to 17 years.
In the present study, five percent of the ICSRs in children included serious ADRs. The corresponding figure for adults was 32%. With vaccine reports included, the proportion of serious ADRs has been reported to be 13% in children .

The design of the present study does not to allow conclusions concerning the question whether the number of ICSRs per million DDD differs between children and adults. Lower doses are often used in children, making direct comparisons difficult. Moreover, dose adjustments for children compared with DDD may vary depending on age of the child as well as the drug in question, making comparisons using DDD as denominator inconclusive. The number of ICSRs in the present study is quite small, implying that minor fluctuations in the number of reports can significantly affect the result. Hence, the disposition of ADRs in children needs further investigation.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the present study indicates that ADRs are reported for commonly used drugs in children. The number of ICSRs varies in different groups of drugs. A possible signal for montelukast and psychiatric adverse drug reactions was found, which should be further explored.

I have 3 children on singulair they are 11,8 and 4. My 4 yr old started it when he was almost 1 when we found out he had asthma and the other two were put on it for allergies for about a year now. I have heard from my 4 yr old that his stomach hurts, he says it all the time, everyday I keep getting on to my 11 yr old telling her if she wouldnt say things like that he wouldnt hear it and repeat it. My 11 yr old has ADD and is on Ritlin.My 8 yr old is ADHD and has been on different Meds to figure out which is the best for him. He has been really depressed and so has my 11 yr old. I put both of them on anti-depressents. My 11 yr old had to be hospitalized in October of 07 for taking medications, anything she could get her hands on. I would find baby tylenol missing knowing I hadnt used it all.Then it was pain pills and muscle relaxers that I had put up from when I hurt my back. When I first found out what she was doing I locked everything up took her to see her Psychiatrist and her Psycologist and I was told by one of them not to worry It was her age that it was normal and basicaly blamed it on tv. I spent more time taking her to her doctors. I asked question with so many people on what to do I got nowhere. I finally found a hospital they took her for a week, her answer to taking the pills was if she took them then she would die and everything bad in her life would all go away. She was released before she could finish treatment because insurance wouldnt cover her stay inless it was outpatient. I couldnt find a place that would was close to do out patient so we stopped going. I finally found a doctor that treated everything her eatting disorder,nightmares,ithching,depression,moodiness,anger,stomach aches,crying and leg cramps, We have been going to these doctors and it has never helped. My 8 yr old has been mean, screaming at everyone crying all the time for no reason you ask him why he cries and all he can say is he doesnt know why. The crying is different than any other crying its not the same as when he gets into trouble or when he gets hurt, its just a very sad cry.He has OCD, seavere depression, ticks, anger, night mares and is very moody.He is never happy, he never smiles. Its really sad to see him like this and to not know why and what to do. My 4 yr old He has asthma that is why he was put on it. He used to get ear infections all the time, no sooner than he got over one, another one started. He is always saying his stomach hurts. I took him to the doctor she said nothing was wrong. He has been really mean I just always thought he see's his brother and sister acting this way so he learned it from them. He has been in Speech therapy since he was 2 and is finally doing better, I always thought because of the ear infections thats why his speech has been so bad, the school thought the same thing, he has been tested and and everything is normal so the infections have been to blame. He wont sleep in his own bed he is afraid we are going to leave him. I took them off of it and it has been about 7 days now and my 8 yr old has stopped crying, he is happy I dont have to get onto him for being mean, My 4 yr old has not complained about his stomach hurting. He has been nicer to his brother and sister. Its amazing at how there is such a big difference in them and I can only hope it will get better since it has only been a few days. I have pulled them off of there anti-depressents and they havent needed them. Its amazing at how there is such a big difference in them and I can only hope it will get better since it has only been a few days.