Pharma Effects

Archive for the ‘pharmaceutical’ Category

I was first diagnosed with depression when I was 18 years old. For 9 years I’ve been in all the different types of medication, but for most of the time I was on Effexor XR. I remember when I miss a dose, just feel so bad I just want to go to bed, but when I took the next dose, do not take long to get back to normal. My memory has been scandalous. So bad that I have trouble remembering what happened when my children were babies. I do not know if this is because the side effects or depression.

Earlier this year, my life is very full and happy and I was so busy until one day I felt like I was going to die. For a week I sat in the emergency department at the hospital that some would die and leave my three children without a mother.

I was finally diagnosed with panic disorder. I do not care what I just wanted to quit. (From the way I felt) I was put Lexapro, but had a bad reaction to what they put me back on Effexor XR.

I can only say thank God! I’ve been there for almost six months and I have decided to go out again, I feel like my life is in control. The main side effects I’ve had this time on this medicine have been a clear decline in sexual function, deep sleep, vivid dreams and my pupils are dilated differently. I have over the last week dropped my dose of 75mls a day to 37.5. I really do not remember that through all these side effects last. I was at a much higher dose before, too. I had the worst migraines, I’m so tired, itchy eyes, I have what I think others have described as a shock.

When i move my head or blink my eyes feel like I got a shock in my head. I am looking through a tunnel at times too. Although I have had the same feeling when it was first put back on the meds. Yes, it’s hard to leave this time, but I still regret not taking that, in the first place. I still can not be feeling the worst feelings I’ve felt in my life and I would not wish on anyone. The effects I am getting now are not even a hint of what I went through before i start.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an ‘early communication’ yesterday that they were “investigating a possible association between the use of Singulair and behavior/mood changes, suicidality (suicidal thinking and behavior) and suicide.”

It is important to note that this ‘early communication’ is not any kind of alert or warning and that no link has yet been found between Singulair and suicide. Instead, as with all medicines, the FDA tries to trace back reports of problems that people have while they take a medicine to see if they are actually caused by the medicine or are just a coincidence. The report on Singulair should be done in about 9 months.

While your kids don’t need to stop taking Singulair for their allergies or asthma, it is a good reminder to monitor them for any new symptoms or problems that they develop once they start taking Singulair or any other medicine. And then report those problems or side effects to your pediatrician and the FDA through the Medwatch Reporting System.
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Now I know there is no “official link” between Singulair and suicidal thoughts, but let me tell you my brother Matt’s story.

Four years ago he had a terrible asthma attack.  We really thought that we were going to lose him.  He was only 11 years old at the time.  He was in the hospital for about a month, his lungs began to fill up with fluid and they had to induce a coma.  It was very touch go for about two weeks.  They had him on a number of prescription drugs during his stay.  One of those drugs was the prescription drug Singulair.  When he finally came out a hospital one month later he had been on Singulair or about three weeks.  The doctors had told us that he is asthmatic and would need to be on Singulair and also some steroid that I really can’t remember the name of at this time.

We were so very grateful that the doctors saved his life, but we noticed something very strange.  He came out of the hospital a totally different Child.  He cried constantly, he had nightmares, he was hallucinating.  We did not know what the hell was going on with him.  So we took him back to the doctor.  They told us it was very normal for a child to experience depression after a traumatic event.  OK so we thought he would get over it.  Well we were wrong.

Six months later he began to get worse.  He was afraid to go to sleep, and he was terrified of school.  Getting him up in the morning was not easy to do.  When we were finally able to wake him up everything seemed OK, but 5 minutes before the bus came he would go into these panic attacks.  It would just break your heart.  We tried to drive him to school drop him off and hope everything would be OK, that once he got into school the tears would stop.  Well they didn’t stop, and it just got worse.  He would go down to the principal’s office and beg to sit in her office all day.  For some reason he was terrified of being around all the other children.

The school than approached us offering to have him home schooled.  At this point we really had no choice the panic attacks were everyday, and he was learning nothing.  You could imagine at this point we all were feeling lost and helpless.

So for two years we had him home schooled.  It worked well but in my opinion is not a substitute for the real thing.  Children need that social interaction with their peers.

One morning I was sitting having my morning coffee and watching the news.  They had a short blurb on the TV about Singulair saying that they were researching possible links between Singulair and suicide, and also depression.  After I heard that my world went into a tailspin.  I immediately called my doctor and he advised me to take Matt off of Singulair right away.  So I did.

Now come to find out Merck had known about the side effects the whole time and never conveyed the information.  Within three days of Matthew being off of Singulair he was back to his normal self.  I was stunned that it was that easy!  Now came the anger.  Why we were not told of these side effects?  This child lost 3 years of his life sitting in the house in fear, wanting to die.

So how is he doing now?  Well he is back in school, he has straight A’s, he is happier then I have ever seen him.

I’m not trying to bash this prescription drug, or have it pulled off of the shelf, I just want information to flow freely, and not be held up because pharmaceutical companies do not want to hurt their bottom line.

Please also take a look at this video.  This is a report cbs news did on my brother.