Singulair and stress

Im 15 and I never knew that singulair had the side effects that included mental/mood change or worsening depression, etc. Although I did find it strange that I always seemed moody or bi-polar, it never occurred to me that it would be caused by singulair. I've been taking it for about 3 years and before I went from 5mg to 10mg i use to have difficulty sleeping, but just last October when I started taking the 10mg i noticed an even greater change in my moods and mental thoughts, i was always sad, doubtful, mad, and was always thinking of all the negative things in life, in fact I even went through a really deep anxiety stage around the end of October, it was a mixture of the medication and stress i'm guessing, but I couldn't stop crying, I'd cry then forget the reason, start crying again, and wonder what i was crying about or why i was crying for such a thing that lasted for about an hour... Then when I ran out, i sort of just put the thought aside to refill them for the whole month of November and noticed i began to feel more... up-beat, very happy, I cant remember the last time I felt so great for such a long period of time, at least not during my pre-teen through teen years so far. All my friends noticed too, normally i would be complaining about how the day is going so bad, but i can't compare November to any other month during the past almost 3 years, although my asthma symptoms came back. So I started taking them again this Monday, and right away that night when I was doing homework, i was studying about tabacco all these thoughts rushed through my head, I felt bad for the people i loved that smoke, and I started crying, almost blaming myself for their smoking, when i stopped crying i started wondering why i cried... it made no sense, normally i'd just be like, "oh man... why do they waste their time doing that.." and forget about it, but the tired, sad, doubtful feelings came back right away. these past few days I've felt like that, and today before i was about to take my pill i looked at some new information that was never included before about the mental/mood changes, worsening feelings of sadness etc... and it all just hit me like a ball going 90mph.

Has anyone seen concerned citizen lately. I'm wondering what Singulair does to cortisol levels. This is the natural hormone produced by the adrenal gland that allows you to deal with stress. I'm wondering what happens to a human being who's physical ability to deal with stress has been compromised.

Reading these postings have brought me some comfort. At least I know it is not all in my head and that Mothers Intuition is still a strong powerful gift! My 4 and 6 year old were given Singulair. My 4 year old daughter came down with her first ever case of swollen glands. She could not eat any food and spent the next 2 months drinking from a straw. All tests came back negative, antibiotics didn't work, steriods didn't work and the ENT said I should remove her tonsils. After 2 months of being on all kinds of meds and her steriod treatment was done I decided to take her off Singulair. I just thought her body should be drug free for awhile! Within 2 days she was completely "healed". I will never give her Singulair again.

My son is 7 and I have just decided to stop his treatment of Singulair also. He has constant complaints of belly aches, grey stool, trouble sleeping and sudden tears. I just thought it was stress with school work, peers, etc. but I don't think so anymore. We seem to try to "understand" why our kids are having certain stress like symptoms but I think we need to look at our medicine cabinets first. They are small people on strong meds and I just don't think their systems can handle it. I think I am going to visit a nutritionist not pediatrician the next time I need help!

Thank you so much concerned citizen for the article on singulair by David Engler MD. He is describing what my 16 year old daughter has been going through. Headaches, CUTTING, stress etc.... We all know. Thank you, Thank you. By the way she keeps improving. Yesterday, she said "I love you" first. Sue

Anyone scroll back to 2003? I wish I had searched for this site back then. 8 year old son off 4 weeks now and doing great! No more "I hate my Life, Life sucks, I wish I was dead, etc." No more 2 hour tantrums. They last about 30 seconds now. Still worried about long term effects...ingrained patterns of behavior due to years of agitation, stress on the immune system, etc. My son had about every side effect listed on this site. I never suspected the drug.

I am a 57 year old man, who has been suffering from asthma several years. This spring my doctor put me on Singulair as an additional medicine to my cortisone-inhalator. after one month I feel symptoms of depression an mood-changing, severe ups and downs.
AND - as an additional symptom i have partially lost my feeling in some fingertips, and now parts of my left thumb and even a feeling of "cold2, mostly in my left hand.
anyone who share that symptom?
M.

Our son started taking Singulair when he was 2 for severe allergic rhinitis and cough variant asthma (in addition to Zyrtec, which didn’t control all of his symptoms). He is 5 now. For the last three years, he has been an increasingly violent, difficult, defiant, argumentative, volatile child who has intense mood swings--one minute he’s laughing uncontrollably, the next he’s weeping over nothing. His doctor and therapist recommended that we see a psychiatrist to have him evaluated for bipolar disorder, which used to be unknown in children. Because he has such chronic sleep problems, the doctor also suggested we take him off Singulair (and increase his Zyrtec dose) to see if it improved his sleep issues. Within a week, he was sleeping much better and was a calmer, happier, gentler boy. He suddenly could take “no” for an answer without flipping out and trying to hurt me. We thought that we were just in an unusual, calm window that would shift either to mania or intense sadness or both, any minute. We also thought that his behavior change might be due to sleeping better. We were enjoying the rare reprieve. Over the last weekend, his springtime allergies really flared up. We gave him Singulair on Monday and by noon, he was completely out of control. I had to strap him into his car seat at one point to keep him from hurting either me or himself. It finally occurred to me that Singulair might be causing his “bipolar” disorder. Of course, we stopped the Singulair. After two days he was a new boy. Yesterday, I Googled “Singulair bipolar children” and got a few hits. I am stunned to read how similar other families’ experiences have been to ours and I feel sick that we gave this drug to our child for three years.

I have been reading all of the responses for a few days now. My 9 year old son has been on Singular for a few years now. I took him off Singular on Friday night. He has always been my moody and difficult one - not bad, he was very sensitive. He was hard to wake up in the morning for school. He was often grumpy and would cry at the drop of a hat. Some days he was more pleasant than others, but we never knew what would set him off. Some days he could be downright nasty. Little things would get under his skin and annoy him - especially anything his younger brothers did! He would cry for no reason and when asked would say, "I down know why I am crying, I just don't know."

When he woke up on Sunday morning, he was different - much happier and easy going. Throughout the day we saw a different child. He has gotten up each morning without complaint, got ready for school, packed his bag, and got a snack for the day. When he couldn't find his school bag, he didn't flip out and blame everyone else (which would have been the normal reaction.) Instead, he found it by himself! He is no longer arguing about everything. He is nice to be around.

I'm still holding my breath and waiting for something to happen. My husband is convinced that Singular has to be the cause - what else would have caused this dramatic shift in his behavior. I want to see how he is over the next few weeks. As each day passes, I am believing more and more that this drug caused these behaviors and getting angrier and angrier

I cannot believe that there is so much of ignorance in such an educated society. Let me first start by saying I am on no medication absolutely I do have bronchitis I don't take cough medications or allergy medications or inhalers etc etc. I read at the bottom in a post that this 28 year old cries every time she sees te Save the children advertisement. I can tell you I listen to music, I watch tv and every touching or heart rendering story or lyric makes me cry!!! I wonder if i was on Singulair I would certainly be committed to some mental asylum.
I think all you educated people should consider that you do not need to be on a drug or any medication to suffer from depression symptoms or any such other emotional trauma. Why blame one thing alone, blame the governments for putting its citizens under stress , blame your economies for bringing down your county into a recession where your earnings don't meet the cost of living, What we should be fighting for is irrelevant, so some strategy comes into light where all these years, read all the posts, 2 , 5, 7 10 years of using Singulair and NOW you want to complain. Why didn't they complain all these years ago and get the drug recalled.. Don't blame one thing alone. Maybe if people lived cleaner, healthier lifestyles you wont be taking medications.

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.

I have been taking Singulair for about a year and a half now, and my mild asthma is totally better. I have noticed a decrease in my shortness of breath, coughing, etc. and my allergy symptoms I struggled with for over 30 years are GONE. I also take Nasonex, so I can also attribute the improvement to that drug. But, I have had dramatic cycles of hair loss, which my hairdresser and doctor have attributed to "stress" even though I am not experiencing more stress than normal (except about the hair loss!) and the main thing for me is weight gain. I am a slim, petite 36 year old and I have gained at least 15 or 20 pounds since I started Singular. I have not decreased my activity level ( I am a waitress and walk about 5 miles each shift easily) or increased my food intake. My doctor and gyne keep telling me it's due to slowing metabolism, and implying that I'm slowing down in activity. I am not. I think it's the Singular, but I'm afraid of the allergy symptoms returning. Anyone else with significant weight gain?

Can someone tell me how long it took for the symptoms to go away.

I have been itchy, eye swelling, tingles, numbness in my hands and feet as well as a rash.

This is all very interesting, but it's all anecdotal! Can you PROVE that Singulair is responsible for all this stuff?

What other meds are you all taking? In what doses? Under what conditions? Do you have a family history of ? Are you under stress? Or are at least SOME of you just hypochondriacs who, reading this stuff, say to yourself, "Say, I get headaches -- sure, it's gotta be the Singulair!" C'mon, now -- hair loss?!

I've been taking Singulair for over 10 months, and if I'd been as damaged as you all, I think I'd know it.

Without rigourous medical studies to show what is REALLY going on, you lot are just gossipping.

This site is obviously trolling for a class-action suit.

Im glad I found this site!! I thought it was just stress, but then realized my symptoms began after taking Singulair 10 mg. Awful night sleeps, muscle twitching, anxiety, nightmares, and insomnia. Im going to stop the medicine and hopefully be back to my old self again!!!!!

We have a 2 1/2 year old who is on Singulair for mild allergies. He is a spirited child but has ALWAYS been a GREAT sleeper and very sweet. We started seeing very very intense fits, agressivness in his behavior and decided the terrible twos had set in. Now his sleep has become very disturbed. He will not go down at night.. generally awake in bed for up to 2 hours (used to ask to go night night). And he wakes up screaming, crying or moaning every night sometimes more than once. We just thought night terrors is a stage at this age. And now he requires a light on, which we thought was a stage also. We started putting two and two together and noticed the timing of all events was when he was prescribed Singulair. I got online immediately and WAS SHOCKED by what I have read and startled at the similarties in problems described by moms. We took him off the meds last night and are hoping for great changes and to have our happy sleeper back soon. If this is what has caused our child all of this stress and sadness I will be angered beyond belief, have we been poisoning our own child with his meds..I hope the doctors are smarter than this. It appears we are ultimately in charge of our own care. WILL UPDATE THIS WEEK.

My daughter is going to be 6 yrs. old this month. She has been taking Singulair now for almost a month and for the past 2 and a half weeks has woke up with night terrors. She wakes up an hour to an hour and a half after she falls asleep. She wakes up crying and running around the house like crazy and says she is scared. They have lasted up to 10 minutes at times. Very scary !!!! I have been thinking it was stress until tonight, going on a few of these web sites reading the experiences that other parents are going through with their children on Singulair. The drug has worked wonders with my daughter's breathing and stuffiness...... but these night terrors are bad and my daughter could seriously hurt her self if I don't figure out why they are happening. I am going to take her off for a few days and see if the night terrors continue.... I will be back to report the outcome. I hope it is not the Singulair because she is more energetic and breathing better than she has her whole little life. If it is the Singulair, then I hope I will be able to find something else that works just as well without the "night terrors".

I just read through all the pages of side effects associated with Singulair. I have noticed sore muscles also. I have also itched for no apparent reason. I am going to stop taking it for a while and see what happens. This is important: I am a healthy 25 year old man. I suffer from asthma and have all my life. As I read through the side effects of people who have small children and are noticing a change in behavior;
I myself recognized that as being one of my side-effects. I have had anxiety fits lately, trouble sleeping due to stress, and find myself becomming angry at people for really no good reason.