Singulair and suicidal thoughts

I just read an article dated 9/1/08 that stated that the American Lung Association just cleared Singulair as causing depression and suicide. They had researchers study the results from the original test trials because they are supposedly more accurate than after market reports. The article is at ******. I cried when I read this report. My now 8 year old daughter has been on this medication for mild asthma since she was 4. We have thought the stomach aches and tantrums were related to moving to a new town around the time she started taking singulair. But, 3 months ago, she all of a sudden started having depression, ocd about germs, afraid she might hurt herself and then depression and suicidal thoughts. She has been off meds for 8 weeks and still has some problems with thinking she wants to hurt herself and feeling down. She is normally very happy and our family is happy and normal, but dealing with this is difficult. How long does it take to get out of their system?

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

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!!

Here is an example of the fact that the medical community recognizes that there are gene based drugs. Because Singulair is modeled to be a receptor antagonist to the cysLT1 receptor and the cysLT1 receptor is a gene, I'd say that Singulair should be described as a gene based drug. I don't really care how anybody wants to play with the definition. CysLT1 is a gene with known variations. Why isn't there just an "across the board" warning for all gene based drugs that unexpected side effects are possible???? And, that doctors should watch out for individual reactions.

WMJ. 2005 Aug;104(6):61-6.Links
Gene-based drug prescribing: clinical implications of the cytochrome P450 genes.Musana AK, Wilke RA.
Department of General Internal Medicine, Marshfield Clinic, WI, USA.

The Institute of Medicine recently mandated an increased effort to improve patient safety and reduce medical error. With the description of genetic polymorphisms in the drug metabolizing enzymes, the field of pharmacogenetics may improve medical care through a reduction in both therapeutic failure and adverse drug reaction. Investigators at the Marshfield Clinic in central Wisconsin are piloting the process of gene-based drug prescribing in a variety of contexts. This paper reviews the field of cytochrome P450 (CYP) genetics and explores factors that impact the utility of this information in clinical practice.

PMID: 16218319

I have been reading research reports that show that montelukast (Singulair) has a higher pKa than many of the other quinoline malaria drugs. That means that Singulair ionizes more easily than even drugs that are known to cause terrible dreams, hallucinations, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. Many researchers believed that the problem with Vioxx was that it ionized under certain physiological conditions.

I will report again when I can confirm the numbers. I am not sure if it is confirmed that montelukast's pKa is around 5.8 and the malaria drugs is around 4.8. I need to do more work before I can point out that it is not impossible to theorize that montelukast ionizes like Vioxx.

My 54-year-old fit, social, successful husband was put on Singulair in January for newly diagnosed asthma. He developed a depression with anxiety, irrational fears, avoidance, mood swings and even one episode of suicidal thoughts out of nowhere. He saw a psychiatrist and a therapist, tried medications, yoga, a vacation, meditation, breathing exercises - everything! But he kept getting worse.

The day he was throwing patio furniture then sobbing uncontrollably was the day he realized he couldn't work in his condition. He negotiated a 60-day leave without pay. Even that didn't help. It was crazy. How could a man who managed hundreds of employees and a major health service system for 20 years suddenly be so paralyzed with fear that he couldn't walk down a beach or go into a Walgreen’s?

We found this site May 26th. He stopped the Singulair immediately. It has been 10 days and he is already 80-90% back to normal. Thank God.

Partly I am writing because it is so hard to read of parents' guilt that they "should have known" etc. Look, unlike a child, my husband is mature and very verbal; he is also a psychiatrist (!) with a capacity for self-examination and a language to describe his inner experience. And me, I'm a psychologist (!) trained in understanding people and I know him very well. And yet with all that training and skill and consultation and treatment, WE STILL COULDN’T FIGURE THIS OUT! So please, don't make yourself feel any worse with guilt. This is awful and tragic enough already.

I would add that the onset of mood and behavioral problems is so insidious that it is hard to connect the problems to the Singulair. Also, I suspect that children and adolescents are at greater risk because of their immature emotional developmental level. An adult l suspect may need some genetic or personal predisposition to mood disturbance, or stress, or both, to trigger these side effects. My husband had a depression episode 30 years ago and had recent traumas that certainly could have triggered the depression. But how treatment resistant that depression was, and those strange paralyzing fears and extreme anxiety – all that I blame squarely on the Singulair.

I have made a report to the FDA. I urge you to do the same.

My son has been on Singulair since the age of 6. He is now 13 years old. He developed seizures 3 weeks ago - temporal lobe aura epilepsy during which he was hearing voices. EEG abnormal, MRI normal. He hasn't started medication for the seizures but I have stopped his Singulair immediately! This was just a hunch - searching the net to see if there is any correlation. I have been to the Pediatrician AND the GP the past 3 weeks and no one said anything. I think a great number of children are on Singulair in SA. Does anyone know about the possibility of this danger?

Unusual weakness, stomach upset, diarrhea, dizziness, cough, headache, nausea, vomiting, trouble sleeping, or mouth pain may occur. If any of these effects persist or worsen, notify your doctor or pharmacist promptly.

Remember that your doctor has prescribed this medication because he or she has judged that the benefit to you is greater than the risk of side effects. Many people using this medication do not have serious side effects.

Tell your doctor immediately if any of these unlikely but serious side effects occur: fever, persistent sore throat/earache, flu symptoms.

Tell your doctor immediately if any of these highly unlikely but very serious side effects occur: mental/mood changes (e.g., agitation, depression, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts), stomach pain, muscle aches/cramps, irregular heartbeat, dark urine, yellowing eyes and skin, numbness or tingling of the hands or feet, dull sense of touch, easy bruising or bleeding, swelling, seizures.

A serious allergic reaction to this drug is unlikely, but seek immediate medical attention if it occurs. Symptoms of a serious allergic reaction include: rash, itching, severe swelling, severe dizziness, trouble breathing.

This is not a complete list of possible side effects. If you notice other effects not listed above, contact your doctor or pharmacist
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................just pulled this off web md,all the side effects are kids had were highly unlikely........yes right more BS

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?

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.

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

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

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

I have been Singulair-free for 11 days now. I do not entertain any more suicidal thoughts, I feel MUCH happier just generally. I have cried, but haven't felt really low, just sad, normal-sad. I do have more difficulty breathing and tightness in my chest, but I am looking into adopting an anti-inflammatory diet. I have exercised more since stopping the Singulair, so I hope that will help long term with my lung function. I would definitely say I would rather feel some tightness in my chest or breathlessness going up stairs than intense sadness and irrational suicidal ideations. This life is much better than the one I had two weeks ago, and I know it's the same life, nothing has changed, just my perspective. I wonder if taking drugs off the market is going to be like putting up stop signs or traffic lights - we have to wait for a significant number of accidents before that move would be warranted. I really can't believe that all those years I thought it was me. I am a whole new person psychologically and it is because of an asthma medicine that is approved for KIDS! Amazing.

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

Hi guys,
I came to this forum after a client at our firm told me to check out whats happening with singular. I am not a lawyer, but I am a secretary for a med mal firm and I can tell you that we have already started taking these cases. I saw a few questions posted about whether you had to wait 9 months for the investigation to finish, but that doesn't stop you from filing suit. If it were my baby boy, I would switch meds, but if you can't--make sure you journal EVERYTHING. Take videos of outbursts, etc. We have one client who's son is self mutilating after using singular. If thats happening to you, try to document the episodes. Like I said, im not a lawyer, but I work for some so I can answer a lot of questions and I would be more than willing to help. I am so disgusted by what I have read. Please email me if you have any legal questions, etc. If i can't answer them, my boss will and if its a medical question, we have a staff nurse so I will give her a call. Again, I am so sorry for what everyone is going through. I pray to god I can help in some way.

Thanks to all of you for sharing your stories! My son is 9 and has been taking Singulair for almost 7 years. These symptoms that have been posted are so true in my son. He was diagnosed with ADHD at 5, has had a temper/attitude problem and has been sleep walking and having night terrors severely recently. I can't believe some of the things that I have read here. My daughter is 5 and she has been on Singulair for almost 2 years. I have never heard of these side effects until the other day at pre-school a teacher told me that she heard a story about how Singulair can cause suicidal thoughts. This really got me concerned. I have told my husband not to allow either child to take it again, so we could see if this is the main cause with all my sons’ issues recently. Again, thank you all for sharing and I hope the children involved have no long-term effects from this medicine! Melissa in Ohio

Follow up to my post earlier today...

I took the my son to the doctor this morning and he was somewhat dismissive of the recent reports on Singulair...says he's had a lot of kids on the drug and never heard a peep about side effects until last week when the report on suicidal tendencies showed up. He did advise that when these kinds of behavior changes happen after a new drug is started he would recommend that we stop taking the drug no matter what it was, but I still felt uncomfortable with his response to us.

I felt like he was accusing me of making it up or only coming up with it because of recent news and message board posts. In fact, I made the appointment BEFORE I saw the posts. I was worried about his behavior BEFORE I saw the posts. It's just that seeing the stories from everyone else basically confirmed my suspicions that it might be the drug causing the problems.

I feel like I definitely wasted OVER AN HOUR waiting for a doctor to spend five minutes making me feel small.

Last night was the last time my son will take the drug, and I don't care what the doctors think of me.

My daughter, now 7 years old, took Singulair (4mg crystals) every evening from 12/29/2004-4/3/2008 (with 5 days off in 2/2008 ONLY). She developed significant mood disturbance/mood swings, sleep disturbance/frightening dreams and anxiety/unexplainable fears during this time, which we have now attributed to the drug, Singulair - the ONLY MEDICATION SHE WAS TAKING besides occasional antihistamines (which caused no problem). The drug Singulair clearly caused significant psychiatric symptoms in my daughter which are strikingly similar to symptoms now being attributed to the drug by MANY parents across the country. I suspected Singulair of negatively affecting my daughter and talked to her allergist about taking her off it in 2/2008 (before any news broke about links between Singulair and suicidal thoughts/behavior). The effects of Singulair on the brains of children are NOT UNDERSTOOD and/or NOT reported. I believe that this is a dangerous drug. It has been very difficult to connect the use of this asthma/allergy drug to behavior/mood issues in young children for two reasons. First, improperly trained physicians confuse drug "side effects" with normal child development (a "phase") or psychiatric illness. Second, Singulair has been heavily marketed as "SAFE" (to the medical community and directly to patients and their parents) and therefore has not been suspected when these serious psychiatric disturbances are reported to doctors. Pediatricians and allergists have said for years, "It couldn't be the Singulair" because that is the impression SOLD to them by Merck.

Is anyone else interested in how many other medications that children or adults who took Singulair started taking after they were prescribed Singulair? If so, would you mind posting what the medication was and what kind of doctor prescribed them?

See comment by cheflette:
about 18 hours ago on Apr 05, 2008 by cheflette, #6727
Concernedcitizen, I REALLY appreciate the hard work you've done looking for how montelukast affects the brain. I think you're making an important point here. Everything we put in our bodies affects other parts of our bodies and I think these research companies forget that sometimes. You can't fundamentally alter a bodily function and expect the rest of the body to ignore it.

The scariest thing to me is that rather than removing the antagonist (in this case, Singulair), doctors will prescribe yet another drug. So many of these children are on a multitude of medications. What a mess.
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"We have no indication that anything about the mechanism of Singulair is consistent with these events (OH REALLY, YOU MEAN THAT YOU CANNOT FIND ANYTHING AT ALL THAT IS POSSIBLY CONSISTENT???)," said George Philip, director of research and product development, according to AP. "But because suicide is a life-threatening event we thought it was important to provide this information in the product label."

In a statement released by Merck, they state that in their own analysis of trials of more than 11000 patients, there was no associated risk between them taking the drug and an increased risk of suicidal thoughts.

1st post 4/3: 8 year old boy with suicidal ideation...now 7 days off Singulair. His teacher reported to me today that my son is not the same child that he was 5 days ago. She stated that she hasn't seen him this happy or enthusiastic since the beginning of the school year. This was UNSOLICITED.
I told her that I took him off of Singulair last weekend. Unbelievable. My husband and I are still in shock.

chris555 should be listed as a side effect. I'm one of the ones whose son committed suicide while on singulair and had the mood swings and such before hand. chris555is causing headaches and making people sick because chris555 is an ass!

I too have experienced the same things that "a2gupta" has: anxiety, depression, mood swings, fogginess, low boiling point, poor sleeping, low self-esteem and yes even suicidal thoughts. I have been on Singular since Sept 2003. I just had that confirmed by my Dr.'s office. I have been on so many anti-depressant medications since taking Singulair and it is well documented. No wonder they have never worked, it is because I still remained on Singulair. Well no longer.

I kind of think CNN and the FDA are intellegent enough to figure out that they should NOT get information off this website. What makes everyone think all these posts are real? First you have to weed out the pranksters who post here for fun, then you have to weed out the competitors to Merck who post here to bust chops, and then you have to weed out the ones who really have a psychiatric condition and get their jollies by posting made up stories.....shall I go on? This is the INTERNET people!!! Anyone with one, two or ten verifyable emails can sign up (I have 11 email addresses myself). I have been intrigued to see the same people posting under multiple user names. Then you go to the other boards and see them there. If you really study these messages you can figure them out. So my point is, NOT ALL THESES STORIES ARE REAL. I think I would be generous in saying 25% of these posts are legit. I would hope that no government agency or news agency is going to risk their reputation on a public forum message board.

I have been on Singulair for 6 months and have experienced anxiety, depression, mood swings, fogginess, low frustration tolerance and very poor sleeping. All of which I thought may be due to hormonal issues. I am 38 and had not considered singulair as the possible culprit. Before seeing any reports about side effects I began taking natural sinus remedies and took myself off of singulair. I began to feel better almost immediately but still not thinking it was the singulair until I saw the reports.

If anyone lives in the western New York Area and want to get in on a class action lawsuit along with My family contact me ASAP!

I have already consulted with my lawyers office and they are going to consult with another firm from Buffalo.

Get all of Your child/childrens medical records together!

Email me at behindthesecret AT gmail .com with Singulair lawsuit as Your subject.

My daughter is 5 years old and has been on Singular for almost a year. My daughter luckily has not had major mood swings but I did notice that she was starting to have nightmares at night. It was to the point where she would wake up crying and refusing to go back to sleep or get back in her bed. Everynight she started to have nightmares and not want to go to sleep. I took my daughter in to see the doctor about an ear ache and mentioned that she was having nightmares at night and thought it might be the Singular. My doctor said that she had several pediatric patiences who were experiencing the same problems. She recommended that I switch it and give it to her in the morning. I am now afraid to give it to her at all with all the problems I am hearing about now. It's a no win situation because she needs it to control her asthma but I don't want my child to risk having suicidal thoughts.

My daughter, who is 9.5 has been on Singulair for the last 6 years. I am saddened that I was so frustrated with her for all of these bizarre behaviors that I never even thought to link to this medication. My daughter has severe allergies, and her asthma is triggered by her allergies, so to that end the medication worked beautifully in controlling the asthma. But, it is not worth the aggressivenesses, horrible mood swings, suicidal thoughts, depressiveness. She has frequent temper tantrums that mirror those of a two year old. I frequently have asked her when she will outgrow this phase, it seems she never moved passed it. Then a moment later, it seems as though she has the drama of an adolescent girl, including the depression and even the extremes of threatening to run away from home and that she would be better off dead. This has been going on for years, and I never connected it to the Singulair. I just thought there was emotional problems, and that I was a bad mom, and that I just needed to keep being consistent and reassure her that she was loved, but that her behavior was not acceptable. She has very low self esteem one minute, and incredible confidence the next. She is very argumentative all the time, about everything. She also talks and sometimes walks in her sleep. She tends to get up 1-3 times per night, and has no recollection of it ever. She has begun to develop stomachaches, headaches, and leg cramps recently.

My son, who is 6.5, and has ADHD, now is starting to mimic some of the things he has heard her say, and it is difficult to undo this damage.

Again, I never connected any of this to Singulair, I just thought I had a challenging child. I pray for all of our children that the damage is not permanent, and that there is a safe alternative that we can have faith in. I know it will be difficult for me to trust another medication.

My deepest sympathies to those families who have lost a child to the perils of the side effects of this medication that were not disclosed to us.

My deepest, most heartfelt sympathy for all the horrific losses and suffering.
I wrote earlier, but I am so traumatized by all this... I can't write long now. Besides all the rest of the torture we've all endured, please let me know and do reply if tinnitus and/or hearing loss has been a major problem. Perfect a year and a half ago, I just had my hearing tested and have so hearing loss in my left ear only. Right ear is still perfect. Funny too... my newly developed tinnitus is also in my left ear only.
I am 50 with a bunch of problems from a head injury of 22 years ago and just within the last few year correctly diagnosed. My life is already destroyed, but about a year ago... it all started getting worse. Now, almost completely unable to function, I am trying to nail if the cause is the Singulair I stopped couple of nights ago and started maybe 2 years ago.
I need to determine (because they can find no cause) for the recent onset of the hearing loss and tinnitus... which someone described perfectly as a hissing sound, like someone is letting the air out of my head.
So please let me know if tinnitus and or a hearing loss seems a result of this miserable drug for you too... Thank you...
losthope18

I posted a few days ago about my son, 9 yrs old who had dramatic changes in his personality since he started taking Singulair last year. My little boy actually told his therapist he wanted to disappear, I was terrified. The night we saw this report on the news we stopped the medication, that was 4 days ago. As of yesterday my son is happy, laughing, giggling, running around the house and doing everything a child should be doing. I actually sat down last night and cried, I can't believe that a medication could do such horrible things to people. I am lucky that my little man has come back to me, unfortunately others have not been as lucky. I will fight this as far as it needs to go, please contact me if anyone needs my story. I will be going onto other websites to see if we can get our stories heard.

While taking Singular I have noticed similar side effects of headaches,suicide,stomach pains,nausea, and depression. I am 33 years old, I have been taking Singular over a four year period and have noticed that my patience is very low while on this medication, I also take Advair and Albuterol for my Asthma and have also taken Claritin, however I didn't know until the recent uproar on the news that the depression and suicidal thoughts could be a result of this medication, i will no longer use this medication

I am Cody Millers mom ,the boy who died from Suicide while on Singulair for 17 days, I just wanted to say one thing to all of you that take the time to post.GO ONE STEP FURTHER CONTACT THE FDA and report to medwatch .The investigation needs evidence like your stories to help make informed decisions about this drug.The poorly orchestrated disclosing campaign that Merck had supposedly set out to accomplish in 2007, has obviously not reached the mass majority of people using this drug .Seeing now how many people did not make the connection to these HIDDEN AND DANGEROUS SIDE EFFECTS.Our child's pharmacy sheet that came with the medicine ,showed none of the updated side effects.They were added in April 2007,I filled the prescription in July 2007.Nothing had been disclosed until we put forth this effort to get the FDA's attention ,by asking the Senate and Congress to look into this matter.Go to your doctor and insist that they report YOUR SIDE EFFECTS to the company and the FDA.It is of the utmost importance.,Kate and Dave M.

i have been taking singulair for the last 9 years. i started taking it when i was in the 6th grade and i am now in my second year of college. i have had suicidal thoughts since the 6th grade and have gone through some periods of severe depression. i was hospitalized this past fall for an attempted overdose. I've never been able to figure out what causes all of these horrible thoughts, but i keep trying to fight them back. in the fall, i just couldn't battle anymore. i never ever would have linked any of this to the singulair though until my sister just told me about the stories being published in the news right now. if it's true, the timing of the onset of my suicidal thoughts would make a lot of sense. that bad thing if it's true, is that it really does work extremely well for asthma so now I'm going to have to find another medicine because i don't want to continue taking Singulair if that has been affecting my mood.

Here's something to ponder...
Here's a quote from Merck's site "Merck voluntarily updated the worldwide product label for SINGULAIR in October 2007 to include "suicidal thinking and behavior" and included similar changes to the patient product information". So if they voluntarily updated their information, why aren't doctors aware, why is the public not privy to this information?

Moms, Dads, and everyone who is taking Singulair with these side effects..if you are wondering why you've changed since being on Singulair, it just may be the side effects of this drug. Please don't wonder anymore, and take yourself off. You don't need to wean off it (coming from my son's pediatrician). It may take a few weeks to really see results. With our 5 year old son, we saw results little by little, and now it's been a month and he's completely back to normal. No more suicidal thoughts, no more blank stare, completely focused, and is his loving self again.

Every time someone new comes here and posts their story, it just breaks my heart that we've all suffered silently for so long without knowing the causes. To all the Mom's and Dad's who've thought they were doing something wrong as a parent, I feel for you, I was there. We did do something wrong though, we trusted the very person who made an oath to protect our children, to help our children. But we cannot blame ourselves for that. We're doing everything in our power right now to make our children's lives better, be proud of yourselves that you're here, finding the answer. Now let's do something about it. It's important to educate everyone we can about this. Don't let these doctors or compassionless people come in here and tell you there are no side effects, trust your parental instincts and go with them!

I am a 32yo male and a Paramedic and it has been a living hell for the last two years. Here are my side effects and then my story. Anxiety, anxious, Irritable, high heart rate, leg calf pain, horrible sleep, bad nightmares, depression, suicidal thoughts, thoughts of hurting people, hate being around people, fear of heights (I used to rock climb daily), dizzy- if I move my head too fast or spin around with my son, weight gain(could be unrelated) arm cramping, frequent urination, and mood swings from crying to anger in just a few minutes. Not like me at all! First few years looking back, I was just became irritable and short with people. The last year has been horrible depression and anxiety along with the other side effects. I like many of you who have written here have had many of the exact same side effects. I had a stressful job at times and worked 24 hour shifts. I have always loved people, and enjoyed meeting new people. Not any more!! Two years ago my mother who lives 3.5 hours away asked me why I was in such so anxious all the time. She said, you are not the laid back and carefree man I know. I thought it was just due to some stress about being recently married or the job. The changes took time and I did not realize them or see them. Looking back, others knew something had changed.
Knowing about medications for my job and how to research them, I looked into every possible side effect and how Singulair worked before I started taking it. Looked good in 2004 with no major side effects. A little over a year ago my father became sick. He was going to battle cancer, but before he could, he would find out he needed a heart valve replaced. He got the surgery, went into cardiac arrest at home a week later, and was given CPR by my mother. A local police officer shocked him and got the heart out of V-fib. I slept with him in the ICU almost every night. He died a week after that and my wife was 7 months pregnant. Talk about stress. The baby came and I stopped working to raise our new little boy. I became short with my wife and started to pull away from being around people. I started to have bad dreams with twisted and morbid outcomes. I had suicidal thoughts out of nowhere and would wonder, where did that come from. Just as soon as they would come, they would be gone or I would think about something else. I got dizzy all the time and started to get carsick if I wasn't driving. I used to be able to read while riding backwards or sideways in the ambulance without a problem of feeling sick. That was not like me at all. I would snap at anything and became almost OC about everything. Thinking all this time the last year that I was just depressed about loosing my father whom I was very close too. Our little boy ended up having some medical problems and the insurance company would not pay the bills. More stress! My wife an EMT-Intermediate blew out 2 disks in her back on an ambulance run, more stress again. More insurance problems. I became a basket case! More anxiety, more depression, never got a full night sleep, mind racing, calf pain soo bad I would ask my wife to rub them, arm pains and finger joint pains at night. I also had a high heart rate of 100 almost all the time. Heart palpitations and a few times it felt like my heart was empty off all the blood and would beat very hard in the middle of the night lasting only a few seconds to a minute. Weight gain, moody all the time. I thought just due to all the normal stress in life.
Two days ago I went for a hard hike and came back with a pounding headache. Excedrin always does the trick for me. Not this time! I had seen a second of a news where the anchorman was talking about Singulair. Googled "Singulair problem" and found this site. I freaked out!! Almost all of you are talking about all the problems I have had as well!! This medication is making us go completely mad!! Tried to go to bed two nights ago and my mind was just racing. It has been Singulair the whole time. The only medication I take. It has made me nuts. My head was pounding the worst I have ever felt and my heart was coming out of my chest. I was awake since 3:30am and read the story of Cody Miller. This poor boy had no chance with this drug. He brain was not fully developed like an adult at just 15 years old. He wouldn't be able to fight the suicidal thoughts like I can. I have been to a lot of hangings, suicide shootings, and drug overdoses. I have seen plenty of death.
I called his mother a few hours later and explained to her that by them going to the media and getting the story out, prompted me to look into Singulair side effects. And that they just saved my marriage and my life. I explained to her that she did nothing wrong by giving Cody the medication for his allergies. It works great for the asthma and allergy symptoms for me. But, it ruined the last year of my life! I felt like I was going to have a stroke shortly after talking to her. I had my wife check my blood pressure and it was 154/100 (normally 120/82). Got grandpa to watch the boy and went to the ER. After my lab results came back and talking with the doctor, we decided it was a panic attack and who knows what the side effects of coming off this drug will be? I had stopped taking it the night before. Thanks to all of you who posted here and thanks to Kate and David Miller for speaking up. You saved my life. This medication got worse over time for me. It got worse as the stress level went up. I have been off it for two nights and already feel much more calm and was sleeping fine, until the little boy woke up and wanted a hug, or bottle. I hated almost everyone, I was short tempered, anxious, OC, and wanted to hurt people for no reason. I want my life back. I want the old me, the care free happy go lucky guy! I already feel better and will write hear as the days and weeks go by. I will never take Singulair ever again!! Not one stupid pill!! Look to those close to you and see if they notice changes. Even those of you who have been on it for three years like me. The drug company knew what was up the whole time. Bad men and women who want money over telling the truth. Maybe not everyone taking Singulair will ever have the side effects soo many of use have been living with, but to those of you that notice changes! Throw this medication away now and never touch it again. Get your life back!!! Be the old you again. I will go back to Albuterol (the only medication I used to take). Read the stories about the two year olds and the five year olds that cry all the time and are angry all the time. Little kids tell it like it is. It's not until they get to work for large drug companies as adults due they lie about side effects and wait years to publish paperwork saying that post marketing research shows all these negative side effects. They knew all along.

My six year old son has been taking Singulair for almost three years for asthma and allergies. We have had such a hard time with him and it all started around the time he was prescribed this drug. He became very irritable, angry, hard to satisfy and generally unhappy. Now that he is six, the last two years have been the absolute worst with him saying he hates himself and just wants to die. He has stomach pain all the time and has had alternating daily diarrhea for over a year. Our pediatrician has done all sorts of tests and has referred us to a specialist. He has bad dreams every night and also complains of leg pain. He has been so depressed lately that he does not even want to go out and play after school and on weekends (not like him at all) and the teacher calls me several times a week to pick him up early because of stomach pain. I am so upset to think all this has been caused by this drug and he has suffered because of it! He also takes Zyrtec, as do all three of my sons, but the older two do not have asthma, just allergies. I gave him his last dose night before last because I just found out about the Singulair investigation. If anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

My son is 11 years old and my mother recently told me that Singulair can be linked to suicidal thoughts and actions. This is scary to me because my son has been taking Singulair for about three years now and I can clearly see a change in his mood. It seems like nothing makes him happy even activities that he use to love he is no longer interested in. He has become so negative and can never find the good in a situation. He rarely sleeps through out the night he complains of being hot and having bad dreams. He does very well academical in school but he does not like to participate in group activities. He had the same teacher for fifth grade that he had in third grade and his teacher mentioned to me that he is completely different and lacks motivation. I must admit even before I learned anything about the mood effect that Singulair could have on patients I was thinking of getting my son counseling to focus on anger management because it seems like the smallest thing agitates him. I don't know what to do now. I think I going to try herbal treatments at least they will be natural and hopeful lack side effects.

I can't imagine the FDA getting involved because of only *one* suicide (though the loss of even one life is terrible). The FDA usually turns a blind eye to what pharmaceutical companies do unless there have been enough complaints or enough evidence to convince them that they must step in.

I came to this board in late February--a full two to three weeks prior to the big news story earlier this week--simply looking for a reason for my son's insomnia. There were already over 1000 posts here on the Singulair board, nearly all of which listed the same side effects: fits of rage, depression, insomnia, and suicidal thoughts. I had never dreamed that my son's fits of rage and depression were linked to Singulair--I had assumed it was all part of being 17 and having normal teenage stresses and hormonal surges. He stopped taking the Singulair right then (back in late February), and the difference in him is astounding. He is much more outgoing and talkative; he joins in with family outings and goes places with his friends (before, he wanted to stay home alone in his room). There have been no fits of rage, no more declarations that he hates himself, no more calling himself a loser (I couldn't believe he would call himself a loser--he carries a 3.9 GPA in an academically-challenging private school and was recently accepted to Case Western University), and he is sleeping better. He is just simply BETTER.

If you or your child can take this medication with no side effects, that's wonderful. Please continue to do so. But please remember: millions of people take Singulair. If only 10% develop the serious side effects, that's **hundreds of thousands** of people.

I have been on Singulair since I was in the 5th grade and no one could figure out my strange behavior, and now it all makes sense. When I was younger every time I took Singulair I had reactions similar to ADHD, but my mother just thought of it as a normal thing for a child to have extra energy. After these ADHD episodes I would be completely wiped out. I kept to myself in middle school and became obsessed with death. Many would say I was anti-social. The ADHD episodes lasted well into my early high school years until my dosage was doubled to 10MG from 5MG. then it seemed as though everything fell apart I became extremely anti-social, isolating myself from everyone including my family. There were many days where I simply did not speak a word, until the point where my voice was so weak it croaked. I wanted to run away from everyone, I wanted to be alone. I would cry myself to sleep many times, I even started to cut myself, and developed an eating disorder. I hid everything because I didn't know why I felt the way I did. I was afraid that because I didn't know people would think I was crazy. In my junior year I started having suicidal thoughts, planning how I would commit such an act. Luckily for me I started to rebel to what my mother desired for my life. To continue my rebellion there were periods when I stopped taking Singulair. The suicide thoughts slowly diminished but were still present. I started to take Singulair again during my senior year and close to graduation I was about to commit suicide. I felt like I was about to explode. I started to skip dosages until my mother realized I stopped taking my medication again, and she monitored my intake of the medication. Starting college was hard for me not academically but socially and emotionally. I hated going to school. There were times where I would sit in class and wanted to burst out crying. It got so bad that I started to hand papers in late and not hand in any at all, to skipping classes and walking around town until it was time to go home. No one really paid attention to how I felt because they just said that I felt that way because I was a freshmen in college. But I felt that it wasn't so that what I was feeling was getting worst. I couldn't concentrate in class and I was not sleeping well, often only sleeping 2 hours before going to school and starting my day. This semester I have rarely taken Singulair and my emotional well being has increased. I don't know if this is all just some kind of coincidence or if Singulair really does have those effects on people. I hope that the FDA is able to figure it out, but at the same time we should ask ourselves if they would really remove something from the market that is bringing in over 4 billion dollars a year???

My daughter has asthma and severe allergies. She has taken Singulair for almost a year straight now. She has dealt with asthma and allergies all their life. She is sixteen. I had noticed changes in her, but passed it off as teenage drama. This is a child who went from being on the cheer, dance and volley ball team to doing nothing. In the last year, she promises me that she is going to get more involved in school, but always misses sign ups or some one treated her badly so she decided not to take part.
She cries at the drop of a hat and has very high mood swings. Twice this year I have picked her up after the school called, because she was having tremors and had elevated heart rate.
I took her to the doctor. The doctor started with and ekg, then a 5 hour glucose test. We have never found out what caused these symptoms.

I started on Singulair about 7 months ago and I tell you I've been sick all winter with asthma. I've had respiratory infections, bronchitis, etc. I don't smoke at all nor am I around smokers. I've found myself depressed and having suicidal thoughts. My mood swings have been off the charts. I get mad about the most insignificant events and sometimes I even get violent. I've broken dishes and even kicked the garbage can into pieces. I am by no means ever violent but after reading everyone's testimony about Singulair, can my symptoms be a result of taking this drug for 6 months now. If so, Merck needs to be held responsible. I lost out on a 5 year relationship because of my behavior.

My son started on 5mg Singulair in 1999. Later that year and the next at the age of 10, my husband and I realized he seemed really depressed. I took him to his pediatrician, who talked to my son at length about anything that might be bothering him, if someone had try to touch him, etc.,etc. Nothing. He had been a really happy outgoing child. Now he was not. The next year in 4th grade he seemed to be worse. We kept an eye on him. There were no warnings whatsoever about Singulair causing emotional problems, depression etc. at that time. Shortly after he started 5th grade, we moved to another city with almost no air pollution in the area we picked to live, and he was still "down". But a few months after we moved, even though we left long time friends, etc., I took him off the Singulair, as he was not really having asthma. The kid got happy again--he was was my happy cheerful boy! I don't believe this is coincidence. Then when he started Middle School in 6th Grade, his school was old and dusty with no doubt mold problems and he started having breathing problems pretty bad again. We started him on Singulair again, for the next three years that he was at this school. He tanked emotionally. Hated himself. Was so depressed it was scary. I kept telling him it was adolescence and it would get better. Then he started a new high school, and was off the Singulair for 6 months, and he was happy again. Then he got flu and bronchitis and was back on it and emotionally tanked again, and never really came out of it. Though out these episodes a few times he told me he thought the medicine was making him feel weird. He last took the 10mg Singulair in 2006, the beginning of his sophomore year when he was sick. His depression exploded and he became suicidal. He was diagnosed with depression in April of 2007 and went on Zoloft. He was not on Singulair then. Then he became suicidal again in August of 2007. His depression medication was changed. He got worse. We found a psychiatrist who was able to help some, but could find no background reason for depression. There is some depression in the family, but none of these relatives became depressed until adulthood. He became suicidal again in November of 2007 and went through outpatient care at the local children's and psychiatric hospital. He came out somewhat better, with skills to help monitor himself. He had more med side effects and has changed meds again. Now he is on 40mg Prozac daily now and doing a lot better, and since we saw the news about Singulair a few days ago, he is extremely better. He is almost back. I would rather go the emergency room 5 times a year then go through this again. We were not given a choice. What are the long term effects of this drug for someone who has been on it through adolescence? No one knows. How can a drug with this sort of side effect for children be allowed on the market? I feel blindsided by the FDA and Merck. If his Dr. in 1999 knew about this side effect she would have never put him on this drug, nor would I have allowed it. I say sue the bastards.

I like to live my life with facts, not speculation and drama. My child is on Singulair and doing fantastic. I remember the trips to the ER when I did not know if my child would live or die. Of course when I saw this report, it caused me some concern so I did some research on my own. Did you know that suicide is the leading cause of violent death in New York State, the United States and the world? In 2002 in New York State there were 1,292 suicides which exceeded homicides by 32%. The statistics show that 1 in 10 teenagers plans to commit suicide. The National Center for Health reports a 10% suicide rate in kids 15-24 years of age and 4 male suicides for every female suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those 15-24 years old.

So now we have 1 child in New York that has committed suicide that just happened to be on Singulair, and it is Singulairs fault? Show me the proof. All I see is one distraught mom who is trying to find blame for her son’s tragic death. Is there only half the story being told, a trend I have noticed in journalism these days. Let’s face it, life happens. I am NOT on Singulair and I have had melt downs, thrown things across the room, been depressed over things, cried, and even for the past week have been having some crazy dreams. I remember as a child putting notes on my room door telling my parents how much I hated them. I remember as a teenager thinking my life would be better if I were dead. I remember my child being cranky and fussy before she was on Singulair, gee maybe she was teething. The term “terrible twos” has been around a lot longer that Singulair. Let’s face it, we have turned into a society of people who always want something to blame. I think it is time people start taking responsibility for themselves and accept the fact that sometimes life just happens. Take accountability for your own lives, and stop trying to blame everything and anything.

I also live my life by reading internet blogs with a grain of salt. These blogs are public forums and places where anyone and everyone can post. How do you know that all these posts are real? Remember the day when kids made prank phone calls for fun? Now they have the internet and can post pranks on these blogs. How do you know that a competitor to Singulair is not posting in order to fuel the feeding frenzy? How about a registered sex offender or a felon in prison? There are a lot of “sick” people in the world and yes, they have access to the internet too. If you are hanging on every single one of these posts as being true and real then I feel sorry for you. The internet provides anonymity and it is easy to create a fictitious identity and a fictitious story. That is probably why if you do a search for “internet safety” you get 15,700,000 hits.

Until I see proof, I am not going to take my child off Singulair. The CDC reports that in 2002 there were 1.9 million visits to the ER for asthma and 4,261 asthma deaths. If I did stop my child’s Singulair, and she died in the ER from as asthma attack, whose head does that fall on? The media?

Be very wary of this drug! My son was on it for a year and a half ...the last six months were a veritable nightmare for him. Severe anxiety issues (had to be hospitalized at one point ) and depression. Doctors kept saying it was not the medication but when I googled the drug side effects and stumbled on a blog about singulair problems , I told my son and off the medication he went. Within a month he was back to his normal self .
Thank goodness he was old enough to tell me how he was feeling ( 17 years old at the time) but what about very young children on this drug...how can they voice their problems when they don't have the vocabulary or knowledge of what is "normal"?

READ THIS:
I'm posting this again for the sanity of the concerned parents on this board to let you know you're not alone:

My 5 year old son was diagnosed with mild asthma and put on Singulair. Within a few months he began having uncontrollable fits of rage, displayed self-loathing behavior, had night terrors, and was inconsolable during these episodes. He became very destructive and was a danger to himself and our family. He even talked about killing himself and would say things like "I don''t want to be in this life anymore" and "I want to kill myself". He would threaten my wife and his siblings and told them he wanted to kill them. It was a truly terrifying experience. Our pediatrician was clueless to these side affects and recommended we have our child go through a psychological evaluation. I knew this was not my child''s normal behavior so I searched the internet for Singulair side affects and found some message boards where parents just like myself were telling their stories of their children''s aggressive behavior. I immediately took my son off the drug and within a couple days he was back to his normal self. He told us that he no longer has "that feeling inside of him". Five year old children don''t even know what suicide is and to see my son talk like this was extremely frightening. He is a sweet, intelligent, loving boy who had never exhibited behavior like this until he went on Singulair. We have not seen this behavior after taking him off the drug.

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.

I have a 10 year old daughter who took Singulair from age 3 until this past November. She has severe asthma/allergies. When she was 6 the night terrors started I informed the pediatrician of this, but they said she probably had sleep apnea. Her concentration level kept her in trouble in school. I never considered that it might be the Singulair. She developed a speech problem and the school speech teacher referred us to a speech pathologist because they thought she might have vocal fold dysfunction. Several specialists later, we wound up at an allergist's office who IMMEDIATELY took her off of Singulair stating that it was a dangerous drug and should have never been prescribed to her.

Her health has IMPROVED off of the singulair and we are doing allergy shots and symbacort with allegra. I wish I could have saved her the emotional roller coaster ride - all because of this drug.

So after reading enough of these replies I've come to a few conclusions:

1) Apparently Singulair should not be prescribed to children.

2) We have some extremely over-reactive parents.

3) It sounds like many of you describing side-effects from your young children also mention that they are on other medication(s). Don't be so quick to blame Singulair for everything. Many medications share the same possible side effects. Unless Singulair is the only medication your child takes, hold your tongue until more definitive studies and investigations are done.

About me -- I'm a 30 year old man who developed asthma when I was 11, and has fairly nasty seasonal allergies (I live in Austin, TX). I started taking Singulair several years ago as I had literally tried every other prescription allergy medicine on the market available for my seasonal allergies. OH MY GOD! I CAN BREATHE AGAIN!

Not only could I breathe through my nose, but the Singulair helped me fight off seasonal allergens (namely mountain cedar tree pollen and Texas oak tree pollen) so much that I was no longer waking up having asthma attacks from my sinuses draining. No longer was I missing days and days of work from "cedar fever" and "oak fever." At long last I finally found an allergy/asthma medicine that works for me.

Now, I also take use Advair (250/50) every day as well. Without a doubt, my life is 100 fold better now than it was before I used the combination of Singulair and Advair on a daily basis. If I miss a day or two of my Singulair, which I have done before, my allergies are noticeably worse and magically get better when I get back on Singulair.

I can honestly say that I have never experienced any depression or suicidal thoughts/tendencies since I have been on Singulair. Undoubtedly there are many others like myself who thank God every day for this medicine. I honestly feel very bad for those of you who have issues with Singulair because it has been a life-saver for me.

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.

My daughter who is 8 has been taking singulair for about 3 years. Her behavior has changed so much and the doctors said it was normal kid things......
She went from a sweet child to one who seems to have these horrible mood swings which cause her to lash out and say mean things, nobody loves her, she wants to run away, she hates me. She gets so angry and slams doors and acts like a child having a tantrum. She has had stomach problems which we went to doctors/specialists for a year......stomach aches at night/sometimes 24 hours a day. She has nightmares and wants me to sleep with her. She does not want to open her curtains because she thinks monsters will come in the windows. She has bad OCD related to germs. She now wants me to go with her when she plays at a neighbors house, she seems to want to know I am close by.
She is very independent and to start this clingy behavior this past year is not normal.
A relative is a doctor and thought my daughter has a touch of ADH but she is honor roll and very well behaved in school so maybe my relative is noticing anxiety in her. I need to call the doctor today and take her off this. I don't know if there is another medication to put her on or if she should be on it. She takes qvar and abuterol inhaler along with claritin D.
I just feel sick reading all these horror stories. I was being told her behavior is normal tantrums to get our attention. Now I know none of this is true.

Our son started taking Singulair three years ago at age 4. Last year he started having really bad headaches and stomach aches. After taking him to the doctor, we thought he was having migraines and was lactose intolerant. He's always been a kind, gentle, well mannered child until this school year. He's in the first grade and has been starting fights, saying mean things to his classmates and hitting other children for no reason. He also has terrible nightmares that are very gruesome for a 7 year old. I've been wondering how in the world his little mind could come up with some of the horrible stuff he tells me he dreams. It scares him enough for him to come into our room and sleep with us. I'm so angry that we were never told of the serious side effects this medicine can cause. We're taking our baby off of this medicine immediately. I agree, we should all file a class action lawsuit - and I have the disciplinary reports from my sons school to prove how his behavior has changed. We're praying for all the children and families that have been victims of the greed of the drug companies once again. This is a shame.

I had a history of depression and was well treated. Upon taking singulair, I experienced extreme mood swings and quickly developed suicidal thoughts, which prompted a leave from school. This report explains a lot of the symptoms I experienced and I am glad that this issue was brought to the publics attention so others can be aware of these possible deadly side effects.