Ava has asthma and in October of 2007, after a hospital stay, she began taking Singulair. Singulair is a daily asthma controller medication and for Ava, it has been a wonder drug. She went from visiting the ER one to two times per month for her asthma to going a few times a year.
Over the past six weeks or so, Ava has been incredibly weepy. She will cry every evening saying that she has no friends, etc. She is fine during the day but every night it gets pretty hectic around the house. Since she’s been dealing with obsessive lining up of toys, etc I kind of just blew it off as Ava having a rough patch.
However, the past week she’s been saying some pretty disturbing things, especially for a five-year-old. She has said things like “no one will miss me if I’m gone” or “no one will care about me if I’m gone.” Okay, aside from the fact that these are insightful thoughts and she’s verbally expressing them to me, I found these statements disturbing.
Last summer, I heard about the FDA’s research into a possible link between Singulair and suicide/depression. At the time, I thought, “well she’s only four, we’re fine.” However, the past few weeks I started to wonder again about the Singulair. She gets weepy in the evening and she takes her Singulair before bed every night.
I called the pediatrician today and she said that there is a very good chance it is the Singulair. She mentioned that some clinicians feel that the link is over-stated and that the questionnaire is slated towards responding about depressive episodes. Conservatives clinicians feel very strongly that if there is even a remote possibility that there is a link, then it needs to be considered when assessing patients.
So, the plan is to stop Ava’s Singulair. She said that within a week or a week and a half we should see a noted improvement. If she doesn’t improve, then the doc wants me to call her back so we should discuss other possibilities. Ava goes to see a pediatric asthma & allergy specialist at the end of February and so we’ll have a better idea of how to handle her asthma medication protocol.
Read our good news update re: Ava’s Singulair and Depression issue.
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Oh my. That would be very upsetting to hear. So glad you had done your research and knew about the possible link. Sounds like you’re onto something. Meanwhile, Ava will be in my prayers.
Thanks Jenn. It started off a few weeks ago with “I don’t have any friends” – the girl is Ms. Popularity at school (okay, its preschool, but still hehe). Once it got to these types of statements I knew something just wasn’t right. Thanks for the prayers!
Now that’s very interesting! [to be selfish for a moment there] My youngest has suffered from depression / periods of unaccountable sadness / crying / negative talk since he was 3 [although nobody believed me] and that’s without the medication.
Hope you see some positive results soon as I know how heart wrenching that can be.
BEst wishes
Oh i do hope there is some improvement.
Dear Melissa:
I hope you have seen some improvement. My son suffered horribly from Singulair. Lots and lots of children have suffered in much the same way as Ava: weepy, depressed, OCD-like behavior, very anxious, very explosive, and having negative self-thoughts. I am trying to spread the word so that more physicians and parents can recognize these symptoms if they occur. Please visit our website: http://www.parentsforsafety.org to connect with other parents whose children have suffered.
My son is doing much better – he went from having severe social anxiety in Kindergarten (despite having lots of friends in preschool) to making friends and having fun (he had really stopped having fun and had become obsessed with death), now that he is in the 3rd grade and has been off of Singulair for more than a year. He does still have some anxiety from time to time, but it pales in comparison to what he suffered while on Singulair.
These kinds of symptoms are particularly hard to identify because 1) it seem counterintuitive that they would be linked to asthma medication, and 2) early childhood development has many stages where emotional development is incomplete and it is hard to distinguish a normal tantrum from more serious symptoms. That’s why it can sometimes take a while to figure it out.
This is why it is so important to raise awareness, especially among doctors. Stopping the drug can help determine if it is what is behind the problem. There are many, more effective treatments for asthma that can be used instead. (Although some of these too, carry risks of side effects.) Also, many children do grow out of asthma, and you can do a lot to prevent episodes by removing triggers from their environment.
I wish you the best of luck and would love to hear if things improve.
I first got prescribed Singulair in December 2009… After that I started to get really bad depression, I blamed a number of things and I’m still not entirely sure if Singulair was the cause. However, that’s when the depression started and I’ve come off it about a month ago and the depression has lifted.
I’m not denying I’ve had other things that could of triggered the depression off but after reading this it could be related to Singulair.
Very worrying, I shall be binning my tablets because I can’t be having those dark thoughts or feeling down like the way I was.
I even cancelled my wedding because I thought it was the stress of that making me feel down!!
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