Ds was put on this 13 years ago.
At the time there were no psychiatric issues listed as side effects.
Ds went from being a happy, confident little boy to being constantly angry, violent and unable to sleep, and it changed all of our lives. He’s an adult now and is still very angry and needs a lot of input and care.
Our GP was puzzled and blamed parenting (which was fun).
After months of searching I stumbled upon a global parent group who had so much research and had found so much information that eventually forced Merck to add psychiatric issues to the side effects. At the time there was evidence found that has since been removed from the internet. A few journalists were interested as it had the potential to be a big scandal 13 years ago (testing trials were pushed through very quickly as the drug promised to be a big money maker), but dropped away as they were warned off. There was also an employee of the pharmaceutical company who joined the group as an insider advisor whose child was affected, but abruptly left after a few months.
Amongst affected children and adults (a tiny number compared to overall numbers taking it, but still in the thousands) the average time for side effects to show up were 9-12 weeks after starting the drug. Normal paediatric drug testing should have covered this, but Monte was pushed through much faster.
Some had MRI scans and found similar structural issues that could potentially have explained it, and there was a very plausible theory of there being a blood/brain barrier issue, mast cell disorder, mitochondrial disorder and connective tissue disorders(I believe those affected by these conditions are more likely to adversely react to other medications and vaccinations, so it would make sense) but there was so much pharmaceutical push back that no one was able to further research who was at risk or why certain children were so profoundly affected.
It’s entirely possible that the huge change in ds was just a coincidence, but given the timeline and the presentation of the change it fits 100% with the change in thousands of other children.
Some adults had side effects to montelukast as well, but they tended to be less severe and went away quickly once off the drug. The children affected seemed to be more severely affected and many permanently. We were largely ignored though, and many of our children were on monte for several months after displaying symptoms as there was literally no evidence to drs that we should take our children off the drug, and it works so well for asthma that taking them off it felt risky. Hopefully now as it’s listed as a side effect it’ll make a difference.
I do hope that at some point there can be more research into this to identify who shouldn’t be on monte, or at least to help some parents claim some sort of compensation for the damage done to their children and families and how they’ve been thoroughly fobbed off. It may be rare, but it’s still life changing for many.
I’m aware that had I not been a part of the parent group 13 years ago, and seen the whitewashing done of the issue, I would believe this was conspiracy nonsense. I was there though, and sadly it’s all true.
On the whole it’s a drug that helps many children, my post is not meant to scare anyone. Ds was one of the unlucky few. In the majority of children monte does its job effectively and without harm.
Just please be aware of the potential side effects, and if a child shows any sign of increased irritability, anger, nightmares, please take them off it immediately.