Singulair and six months

IS THIS SITE AN ANSWER TO OUR PRAYERS?

A little while ago less than two hours, after a very emotional, difficult battle with my daughter, we had yet another heart to heart to try to do better. At the end of our talk WE PRAYED for guidance to know how to help the situation. So I'm here looking for a link to her behavior fron the ADHD medication and I see someone had posted about Singulair side effects. I was floored! I have never thought that Singulair was not a safe drug. No doctor has ever mentioned any negative side effects to me regarding it. The more I'm reading about it the more in shock I am. Have I and her doctors been doing this to my daughter? My 12 1/2 yo daughter has been on Singulair for probably 10 years. She was a 28 week preemie and had severe lung issues so it was a needed medication. Her behavior has worsened the older she has gotten. Because of mostly anger issues and problems in school about a year ago she was started on ADHD medications. We are currently trying to find "the right one" . I feel so awful. Could all her misery have been caused by this little pill that was suppose to help her? Why has her pulmonoligist continued to give it to her although she has not had any serious asthma problems in years? I think I will stop all medications and see what happens. My daughter has also been on amytriptylin for about six months also for severe migraines. What do you think? Should I stop all of them cold turkey or gradually decrease one at a time? I would GREATLY appreciate any advise.
Thank you

I have stated many times that I am not an expert. I just post what I find. This has been a mind boggling journey for me. This is way over my head but I struggle to read and understand. Finding answers to why children are suffering from neuro-psychiatric side effects is worth the effort.

I have made the following observations.

1. Some quinoline are known to be able to cross the blood brain barrier.
2. Molecules that ionize are known to be more likely to be able to cross cell membranes. So if montelukast ionizes as a result of change in blood pH to sufficient acid conditions that it ionizes, then it could be possible or maybe like that it does in fact cross the blood brain barrier.
3. We know that there are cysLT1 receptors in the brain.
4. We know that researchers believe that montelukast may bind at the arginine of the cysLT1 receptor.
5. We know that arginine contains four nitrogens. And montelukast contains one.
6. We don't know what happens to those nitrogens.
7. We do know what macrophages create nitric oxide as I posted.
8. We do know that if something cause excessive nitric oxide to build in the brain that there would be damage to the neurons.

Some people may remember when I got stuck at the astrocytes, the cysLT1 receptors and glutamate. I keep looking for research reports that may shed more light on this.

Titre du document / Document title
Nitric oxide causes glutamate release from brain synaptosomes
Auteur(s) / Author(s)
MCNAUGHT K. S. P. (1) ; BROWN G. C. (1) ;
Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)
(1) Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, ROYAUME-UNI
Résumé / Abstract
We determined the ability of pathological levels of nitric oxide (NO) to cause glutamate release from isolated rat brain nerve terminals using a fluorometric assay. It was found that NO (0.7 and 2 μM) produced (4 and 10 nmol/mg of synaptosomal protein) Ca2+-independent glutamate release from synaptosomes (after 1 min of exposure). Spermine/NO complex (spermine NONOate; a slow NO donor) and potassium cyanide (an inhibitor of cytochrome oxidase) also caused Ca2+-independent glutamate release. Preincubation of synaptosomes with 5 μM 1H- oxadiazole quinoxalin-1-one (an inhibitor of soluble guanylyl cyclase) had no effect on NO-induced Ca2+-independent glutamate release. Ca2+-independent glutamate release produced by NO was greater in a low-oxygen medium. NO, spermine NONOate, and potassium cyanide inhibited synaptosomal respiration with a similar order of potency with respect to their ability to cause glutamate release. Because NO has been shown previously to inhibit reversibly cytochrome oxidase in competition with oxygen, our findings in this study suggest that NO (and cyanide) causes glutamate release following inhibition of mitochondrial respiration at the level of cytochrome oxidase. Thus, elevated NO production leading to mitochondrial dysfunction, glutamate release, and excitotoxicty may contribute to neuronal death in neurological diseases.
Revue / Journal Title
Journal of neurochemistry ISSN 0022-3042 CODEN JONRA9
Source / Source
1998, vol. 70, no4, pp. 1541-1546 (29 ref.)

INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 4037, 35400007527188.0230

I've been taking Singulair off and on for about six months for severe allergies. I have begun having bad dreams every night. Some times they will wake me up and some times not, but regardless they leave me feeling unsettled and strange most of the day. This is the second time this has happened. This time I am stopping the Singulair for good now.

Ok I haven't been following along for several days so I may have missed some info. But what I'm wanting to know is if anyone out there has had the their child off singular for several months and had the attitude problem get worse rather than better. I don't know what is going on with my son but he has been off the meds for almost 7 months and within the last month turned very mean and ill-tempered. We would get this reaction sometimes while he was on the medicine but now it's 10X worse. Could be totally unrelated, but I thought I'd through it out there just to see.

My four year old son was put on Singulair about a month and a half ago for allergies/very light asthma. I was told that it would help him to possibly outgrow those conditions, and that we would re-evaluate in six months. At first I wasn't very consistent with giving it to him, but for the last two weeks or so he has had it every night before bed. For the last week he has not been himself. Whining a lot, upset about very little things, much more aggressive towards his sister, hitting, kicking, throwing fits. Twice this week his day care center staff pulled me aside and said he has been acting horribly. Upset about little things, angry, kicking, not listening, being very defiant...in short not acting like himself. Same as what we are seeing at home. It's like his behavior has regressed back to a two year old or worse.

I made an appointment for him today because of these behavior problems, plus he seems to be suffering a possible ear infection and bronchitis again anyway, which is what we started on the meds for in the first place. A co-worker remembered that we had recently started medication, and inquired about whether or not I thought that could be causing the behavioral issues. I did a search on google and came to this site. Reading these stories is like a light bulb switched on in my head! I feel horrible, why didn't I think to ask about side effects, why didn't I think about the meds being a possible cause of his behavior? No matter what the doctor says today, I am taking him off the Singular immediately. I will be in search of natural remedies to treat his allergies.

My 12 year old son was diagnosed with severe infantile asthma at 4 months of age - it was so bad that we had to fly him from Illinois to the National Jewish Center in Denver, Colorado, for a correct diagnosis (I would highly recommend this center for anyone with asthma that is not controlled). He did well until about six months ago, when his asthma became uncontrolled. Our doctor put him on Singulair. My son has been having trouble at school, is at risk of being held back, and his shown behavior problems that he never had in the past. I never put it together - until I saw the news last week. He's now off Singulair and we've seen some improvement, and we're praying for more. Thank God we found out before it was too late...

I have been on Singulair for ten years or more. Six months later I was diagnosed with depression because I wasn't sleeping and felt tired. I was prescribed Paxil. I was sleeping less and had tremors. The doctor doubled the Paxil dosage and put me on anti-seizure medication. I stopped sleeping and checked myself into a hospital. They diagnosed me with bipolar disorder and prescribed Lithium. All this time I was taking Singulair.

All these years I would feel like some part of my thinking process believed it would be better if I was no longer alive. These thoughts felt very unemotional and detached.

When I heard about the possible connection, I immediately stopped taking Singulair. I know that they recommend you see your doctor first but I did it anyway.

All the thoughts of suicide have gone. My brain feels like you would feel if you recovered from the flu.

It has been a week now. I still take the Lithium. I don't want to risk a manic episode.

My son, Dalton, is 7 years old and has been taking Singulair since a month before his second birthday. It has helped his asthma but for the last six months we have been seeing a change in him. He is very angry all the time. He says he can't help it and doesn't know what is wrong with him. He has crying spells and hits himself in the head and says he wants to die. He is always so angry and I could never figure out why. I can't believe what I am reading. I have sat here and read all the other comments about this drug and it sounds just like what my baby is going through. It makes me sick to know that they give our children medicine that can cause all of this pain. I heard about this last night and I stopped giving him the medicine. Hopefully we get our son back to normal and he starts to be a happy child like he was before.

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"?

My daughter was prescribed singulair about six months ago when she was 4Yrs. old, after about a month on the medication she stated complaining about stomach pain, headaches, and refuses to eat. She recently started running high fevers at night and has been very emotional. The doctors only had great things to say about singulair,it makes me wonder if our childern's doctors may be getting some kind of financial incentive for prescribing these medications to our children.

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.

when my son (now five) first started treatment for allergies at almost 3, he went on zyrtec and singulair. he was moody, grumy, and needy. i just assumed he was 3. after about 10 months the allergist switched him to pcm chewables with his singulair and he turned evil. for example, he wasn't quite 4 and attacked me one night because he didn't want a bath. it took several minutes to pry his hands of of my neck. it scared me to death. since he was already on singulair i assumed it was the pcm and finally found a pharmacist who said that it "might" can have those side effects. the allergist wouldn't accept that it could do that and wouldn't change his prescription. finally went to new allergist who changed him back to zyrtec but wanted to stay on singulair due to new asthma diagnosis. his behavior got better, but still very moody - many ppl said "spoil" because of huge meltdowns over nothing. he is now 5 and has been on allergy shots for a year. about 6 months ago the doctor said could take him off zyrtec but keep on singulair. i thought yay! mood will get better. it didn't. he was still getting notes from kindergarten teacher for talking too much, fighting, moodiness, meltdowns, etc. we took him off singulair to see how asthma would do since allergies doing better. he started getting greenlights! we still have some meltdowns and moodiness. but, it is slowly getting better. i wonder how long it takes to clear out of their system?
in the last six months we have periodilly put him back on zyrtec and singulair when allergies acting up. his teacher tends to send home notes that week asking if he is on medicine. it never occurred to me that it could be the singulair! what scares me is that 3 weeks ago he said he wanted to get a knife and cut his head off so he could "go to Jesus". i talked to him and finally decided he was just talking, don't think he truly meant it. but now, i look back and realize he was on singulair at the time!
the scary thing is that my one-year old is also on it for asthma. i got put on it recently for chronic sinus problems and my husband has been on it for years! i think I will not be giving it to any one until we talk to the doctor!

as a side note i have a friend with a 22 mo old that drs have tried to put on singulair off and on since she was 12 mo or so. every time it makes her unable to sleep. mother agreed to try it again recently because child's asthma was so bad and they ended up at the ER because the baby couldn't quit crying!

Okay so I'm reading all of your postings and I about to totally flip out. My 6 yr old was diagnosed with a very mild case of asthma (an occasional cough that got worse with colds) when he was around 3. The doctor prescribed him Singular and I'm almost positive they started him at 5mg and now I'm reading that it's not recommend at that dose until 6yrs. He is very prone to severe mood swings....one minute screaming "I hate you!" and making commits like "I'll get a knife and kill myself!" to acting like there is nothing wrong and the previous outburst had never occurred. As a rule he is an extremely lovable kid but has these sudden outbursts. Having said this he has been off the medication since October with out any noticeable change. My concern is that if this medication has these types of side effects could it have long term or permanent effects on such young and still developing children. Has anyone else out there had their child off the meds for more than 6 months and not seen improvement in their behavior?

Singulair is the only medication I take. Therefore, ruling out other causes due to medication is simple. Does anyone else experience incessant roaring in your ears from taking Singulair? Additionally, I experience some of the other side effects described by others -- dizziness, forgetfulness, heartburn.

If you want to see the story about the SINGULAIR AND SUICIDE click on on this page and the news affiliates have the video and the story.

I feel horrible that I allowed ny daughter who is seven to stay on this for six months.I have been trying to seek answers as to why she was having night sweats,aggressive behaviors, night wakefulness,numbness,and walking in her sleep.Her teachers have said she is falling asleep in her class.After reading all of the above I'm shocked and feel regret about not stopping the meds sooner.She is coming off ASAP>>>>>

Both my daughter and I have taken Singulair.

We kept my daughter on Singulair for about six months. Like many others have noted, she became violent, agressive, sassy, etc. (She was 5 at the time) After consulting a pulmanary doctor, she was taken off the Singulair and put on Advair, Orapred (for a short term) and Albuterol. The behavioral symptoms stopped almost immediately. As a side note, the brand name Orapred does not cause over-excitedness as does the generic version and Xopenex is a newer form of Albuterol that does not cause the weight gain, hperness and sleeplessness. Her asthma is well under control at this time. Trial and error is the best with all medicines, they have so many different drugs out there.

My personal experience with Singulair is mixed. Sometimes I take it with no or little side effects, and other times I have bad enough side effects that I stop taking it.

Any medication can cause bad side effects, you just have to weigh the pros and cons.

I was precribed Singulair six months ago. Though my asthma has been under control I have been very moody and quick to lose my temper. The biggest problem I have been experiencing is mouth pain. I went to my dentist thinking I had a cavity. He said it was my sinuses causing the problem. Today I realized the tooth pain started about one month after starting taking Singulair. I would like to know if anybody else has had this problem. I have also gained weight since being on this medicine.

I started taking Singulair about a year and half ago. Six months ago I started having muscles twitching in legs and arms as well as other parts of my body. I have had 2 EMG's ans 3 MRI's and the doctors can not find any reason for the problems. I also have some muscle weakness in arms and cramps in the lower legs. Has anyone else had this type of reaction while taking Singulair? Please report if you have.

I thought I was losing my mind until I found this website. My two and a half year old son has been on Singulair for about six months and he's had a huge personality change. He's aggressive, has nightmares and wake up screaming about monsters and tigers. He used to sleep in his own bed but now gets so afraid he runs into our room most nights. He's begun to hit and yell at us and is making the kids in his preschool room cry. He's not the same little boy he was before he started taking Singulair and after reading all of these other messages, I'm taking him off the drug and will see if his allergist/ENT has another suggestion. I think he'll tell me I'm paranoid, but I'm sure this Singulair is the problem. Thank goodness I found this website!