Singulair and depression anxiety

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

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

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

60 year old female--depression, anxiety, weakness, ear aches, body aches, heart palpitations, tired all day long, insomniac at night. Been on Singulair for 6 years. It has greatly helped my asthma, but at a real cost to my health. After reading all the comments I will definitely take myself off of it tonight and speak with my doctor this week.

LaWheeze

After reading all the horror stories on here, me and my husband soon began to realize that we were having a lot of the side effects listed here and not listed on my son's actual Singulair prescription. The side effects my son had were behavioral changes, irrational behavior, inattentiveness, not able to stay on task or stay still -- in fact he broke his arm twice being so hyper, yelling, screaming and just plain mean.

We took our son off of Singulair as a trial for a few days. Immediately we began to notice differences in his behavior. He wasn't as agitated and quick to yell or get angry. (He's only 5 years old). He actually would be listening when we would speak to him. He would sit calmy and read books and the one huge thing he would do was look at us and smile. He even said to my husband once, "I love you Daddy," which just brought tears to our eyes. I never realized what a Singulair fog he was in and what it did to him. Here we were pretty close to getting him evaluated for ADHD or even Aspergers. So now we're in the same boat as others that are searching for other asthma meds to give my son. Right now we have gone back to Pulmicort, Xopenex, Nasonex and Allegra. I'm so glad I read this forum because I was desperately searching for answers for my sons behavioral issues. Oh, by the way he was on Singulair for 1-1/2 years.

I'm seeing some posts from parents who say their children have returned to normal after discontinuing the use of this medication. However, there seem to be a lot of diagnosed "ADHD" or "BIPOLAR" conditions. Are your children really returned to normal? Or have they been diagnosed with a psychological issue and are receiving treatment? There seems to be a connection here, even after discontinued use, especially male adolescents. Any thoughts?? The increase in cases of ADD, ADHD, AUTISM, etc has been multiplying at a very disturbing rate in the last 10 years. I'm thinking definite connection to the "new" breed of "receptor blockers". What is it triggering? Any thoughts out there? Lets post anyone with similar cases and see how many are out there.

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

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.

HI,

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

My daughter had an appointment with a gastrointestinal doctor this morning because of her stomach problems. (She has been off of Singulair 10 days now and ALL symptoms- leg pains, abdominal pain, dizziness, sensitivity to light, severe mood swings, depression, anxiety, severe tantrums have all vanished) We kept the appointment with GI because our physician advised us to. He found it hard to believe that Singulair could be the cause of all of her symptoms. Well the GI also found it hard to believe that Singulair was the cause but said, "The proof is in the pudding." I have filed a complaint with the FDA on medwatch.com. It was very easy. I have also asked the doctor to file one as well. I also gave the doctor a printout of the studies done. Hopefully with more and more people filing complaints the FDA will act quickly. There is so much indisputable evidence regarding adverse reactions. It is unbelievable how many stories sound just alike. So many children have lost years of their life due to this drug. Parents have spent so much time and money trying to figure out what is "wrong" with their child. It is a shame so many have been incorrectly labeled all because of a drug they were taking!!

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.

My son is now 17. He has been on singulair for about 7 years now. We have been dealing with emotional problems with him for almost as long. Thinking back on his history, he manifested many behavioral problems almost since the start beginning with reports from his teachers that he was having meltdowns in class back in elementary school. He is very bright, but was having lots trouble with his school work. Finally we had to pull him out of 9th grade (2 years ago) because he could not function in a "normal" school environment. He has been in therapeutic boarding schools ever since. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think Singulair might be the culprit. I called the school (2,000 miles away) and had him stop taking Singulair Saturday, March 29. He has exhibited many of the symptoms - depression, anxiety, mood changes, suicidal tendencies, itchy skin, joint pain. No one treating him ever recommended to take him off Singulair. I am hoping that he will start seeing immediate changes. We have spent a small fortune to keep him safe and protect him from himself over the last two years -- not to mention the personal toll this has taken on our family. I am going to see how he is within the next couple of weeks and I plan to report everything to the FDA. I am horrified that this drug was in my son's system for 7 years. I hope it hasn't caused any permanent damage.

I'm a 35 yr male and have been dealing with depression/anxiety for years due to current & past issues in my life. This post IS dealing with singulair side effects but want to give some history as to why I think it's singular and not something else. For the past 2 or so years I've been using xanax which has worked fairly well in controlling my anxiety, but my doctor preferred I stop taking it because of it's potential for abuse. I've been on SSRI's before and I hated them, so I did some research and decided to try wellbutrin which works differently from the SSRI's. I was still using xanax while ramping up on wellbutrin the end of February. To my relief, the wellbutrin started working wonderfully - felt like I could cope with life, increased energy, better mood, with no negative side effects (actually some positive ones) - the only problem I was having is I traveled during this time frame and developed a bad case of sinus rhinitis due to the climate changes. I've had chronic sinus problems my whole life so it's no surprise. I tried most otc meds and nothing was helping. In the meantime I was feeling so much better (other than the rhinitis) that I decided to start tapering myself off the xanax. When I got to the point where I'd stop taking the minimal dosage I would start getting physical withdrawal symptoms (headaches, dizziness, etc) which is fairly common after taking for a prolonged period of time. The side effects were strictly physical - no excessive anxiety or psychological craving My sinuses were still really bothering me so I had two reasons to visit the doctor - try to get something to relieve my sinuses and to get a short supply of a benzo with a longer half-life to ease the withdrawal from xanax. The doctor gave me a prescription for a month of diazepam and 9 weeks of singulair samples. That was 3 weeks ago. I immediately begin using the singulair, but still had some xanax left so I decided to continue on a minimal dosage and use it up before I went to fill my rx, which I just started several days ago. Coinciding with when I started taking the singulair, all the positive benefits I was feeling from the wellbutrin just suddenly stopped. My depression and anxiety came back worse than they were before - another persons post describes the change in me: feel very anxious, fearful, reclusive, depressed, that everything is going to go wrong, or is always wrong. I'll have extreme anxiety about small everyday things. I’m unable to concentrate. I've also become more irritable, argumentative, and aggressive. I have difficulty falling and staying asleep. I also experienced a very noticeable decrease in sexual energy after a very noticeable increase which is a side effect of wellbutrin. I can even understand the rationale for suicide just to be free of this emotional nightmare - not that I would do it - but can understand it. I couldn't figure out why I went from finally feeling good about life to suddenly feeling worse than ever before. I guess I didn't realize it right away because my sinuses were much better, but I know these symptoms began occurring very shortly after I started to take the singulair. I was trying to figure out what was going wrong with me and yesterday I did a web search on 'singulair side effects' (since it’s the only variable I could think of that changed within that time period) and came across this site and several similar ones. It blew my mind how many people were talking about the exact things I was feeling. Yesterday was my last dose. Does anybody know how long it takes for this crap to work its way out of your system after 3 weeks of use???

I thought I had a very adverse reaction to Singulair about 2 years ago. I had constant thoughts and dreams of loved ones and pets dying, anxiety and fear of things I had never had fears of like driving and heights. I had extreme stomach aches and shakes. I could not sleep at night. Eventually I stopped taking this and a couple other allergy medications. The physical symptoms started to wear off, but not a day goes by that I don't have a sense that life is finite and a little bit of anxiety kicks in. Each day gets better and better but it does leave a lasting effect. Now news comes out that Singulair may indeed be the culprit. On one hand I feel vindicated but on the other I feel a lot of anger. With all the other allergy meds out there, why not just take it off the market? If there is a law suit to get this drug off the market, count me in!

(stomach cramps, sleeplessness, depression, anxiety, bad dreams, shakes, constantly tired)

Are there people that have not experienced any side effects of Singulair I saw a question, and the answer is that they are the ones that are not going to post here. Millions of people and especially kids are fine with this medication and have no reason to look for this site. Will some people get side effects from Singulair, yes, but unfortunately there is not a drug out there that will cause no side effects.

People saying this could cause all kids to suicide is a bit disturbing. If you want to take a look the most popular allergy medication, Zyrtec has had suicide listed in their information for awhile. The reason these allergy medications have to have them listed is because they are heavily prescribed because of the great amount of allergy sufferers and any time some one passes in a car crash, accidental death, or unfortunately even suicide they have to list all medicines they are on. Obviously with popular medications more people from these cases will exist than the less popular ones. Drug companies are protecting themselves because of the litigious society we live in and have to place all kinds of occurrences there and not to say in this case, but a lot of people are always looking to blame others for something instead of taking responsibility for themselves.

I don't think doctors are prescribing these medicines because they do not want what is best for each of their patients. There is no conspiracy, and I would trust their view and years of studying and practice to someone's inexperienced diagnosis on this forum when I have no idea what their background and job is on here. I do not look to consult my son's teacher to fix a leak in my roof, so I go to my doctor for advice on medicine and not consult someone not in the field.

Sorry about this harshness, but someone showed me this board and as a parent who has their son on Singulair with great results and even trusted my doctor when they suggested to try it in my one year old son I will continue to listen to their advice. I have heard numerous people in the medical community tell me Singulair is one of the cleanest drugs out there, but again there isn't a drug with no side effects. I am sorry that not all parents have achieved the great effects my kids have had with this drug, but I think most have and thus not had the need to find this board.

This is more to provide more information on the Singulair advertising .The new ads in magazines like February family circle state more side effects like suicidal thoughts and actions, this information has not even made it to the pharmacy's yet.We were told that the drug should be black box labeled if they are listing the severe side effects such as this.It just proves that our 15 year old son who took it for no more 17 days could never have been put on it had we known it could cause depression another newly listed possible side effect.Losing your child to suicide after giving him a drug for allergies was so mind boggling but its starting to seem more criminal that the drug companies are withholding reported side effects as serious as depression,anxiety,aggressive behavior and suicidal thoughts and actions.I have recently provided you with the FDA website but now I am asking you to go the website and call your local branch to file a complaint against this very dangerous and unpredictable drug so it sees the proper label changes and make the public aware of the change via MEDIA OR NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES also most importantly our doctor has not been informed only by us of the major changes in side effects reported and listed.How are we to know if the physicians and pharmacist don't even have the knowledge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The drug company MERCK is notorious for trying to fly under the radar and get away with pharmaceutical murder and this time I can only hope people are sick of it!This medicine is heavily prescribed to children and the most severe side effects do happen to real people like us and my sweet boy paid with his life!

Uncontrollable muscle twitching and tics, depression, anxiety, insomnia.

My problems started with bronchitis in December and snowballed. I have very minor asthma since childhood; usually one or two events a year. Don't know what happened but it was out of control. Started on Singulair as a means to bet my asthma controlled so I can go back to easier maintenance. I was only on Singulair 10 days. I had it ALL: depression, anxiety, numbness in legs and feet, flu-like symptoms, earache, leg jerks at night, can't sleep, dreams (when I did dose) that were so weird they were unreal, and the very small hint of stomach ache so I QUIT IT immediately. Went back to my doctor who was not opposed to it all; she send side effects can be nasty for some people and admitted SHE can't even take it. Hello???

I was never a dpressed person; at first I didn't know what in the world was happening to my personality. I think this drug can work for some but it appears to be a few - seems the side effects hit just about everybody in some form. I would be every careful taking this drug; the advantage has to outweigh the side effects, for me the side effects were far worse than the asthma flare-up.

I don't want to dish on the drug since it seems to help some people but I think they downplay the side effects entirely too much when the prescribe it; you don't see them all until you fill the prescription and start reading. Yikes.

Son, who is 15yrs. old, started taking singulair about 3 wks ago for the first time for mild asthma. Before taking Singulair, our son was a happy, laid back kid, with not a care in the world. About 2-3 days after taking singulair he started having the folliwng symptoms:
-feelings of depression
-anxiety
-panic attacks
-insomnia
-pins & needles in legs and hands
-tight chest
-clearing throat constantly
-dizziness
-obsessive water drinking
Finally had a breakdown yesterday morning to his father and I, tears streaming down his face that he 'couldn't take this anymore'. It's very scary to watch your child have such mental anguish knowing that he had never experienced this before in his life! I am so ticked off!! If I had known this drug would cause such dramatic side effects, I would never have put him on it. As of tonight, he will no longer be taking this drug!!!

I am a 40yr old woman who has been on this drug now for almost ten years. I have depression.anxiety, sleep disorders and weight gain, and i always had attributed these to the paxil i was taking or my abuse that i suffered as a child. I have very strong pain or spordiac aches in my ankels and wrists and a bad lower back...again I was thinking this was from my past abuse as a child. I just got done reading this, and now i am wondering what is going on...My asthma has been under control well by this drug. I would not take the advair my dr said too cause of the high risk of glacoma and my fear of someone touching my eyes, i really freak out majorly, its that bad, anyhow...I sit here and wonder, I am going to be ok now?!!!