What Else Don’t We Know?
For years I took Singulair for my asthma and it was a huge help. (You too, Joey, right?) Of course, it was more helpful to quit smokin
g cigarettes, but that’s another story.
At any rate, it seems Singulair has been under suspicion of causing suicidal ideation and impulses, but Merck’s top-selling drug has—at least in this regard—been given a clean bill of health. From Bloomberg.com:
Merck & Co.’s asthma medicine Singulair and related treatments weren’t associated with an increased risk of suicide or suicidal urges, U.S. regulators said after a review of clinical trials. …
Merck reported in 2007 that it has seen an unusual number of reports of suicidal behavior in Singulair users. Those cases weren’t enough to prove a definitive link and were based of voluntary reports from patients and doctors, Merck said. …
The FDA reviewed 41 Merck-funded studies involving 17,709 patients who received Singulair or a placebo. Of those patients, one person taking Singulair had a suicidal thought compared with none on placebo. No suicides were reported in either group.
Yet the FDA is still analyzing the drug for other side effects and says doctors need to monitor patients who are taking it. So did this drug have an impact on my psychological symptoms? I don’t know; I guess I’ll never know, in fact. But it would have been nice to understand at the time what the implications were for a person with psychiatric illness. Or hell, maybe I was misdiagnosed, and I really just have Singulairitis!
Merck’s Singulair Not Associated With Suicide Risk (Update2)
liz | 5:05 PM | BIG PHARMA, meds
Hmmm … “Merck-funded studies.” I wonder how that will turn out?
The TV ads for these drugs last about 30 seconds. The first 5 seconds tell you what the drug treats. Sometimes it’s a legitimate illness like asthma, and other times it’s a fabricated illness like urinating too much.
The next 5 tell you to “Ask your doctor why [drug] is right for you.” The rest of the ad is a fast-reading narrator telling us of the myriad of side-effects.
My favorite is the anti-depressant that may cause diarrhea and excessive yawning.
Sometimes you’re better off with the disease than the cure.
This was on the infrequently changing FDA MedWatch page today:
Shazbot!!!
I’ve been on Singulair for 14 months and have never heard of such issues. At least I haven’t been suicidal over the past year. I’ve always been more concerned with the increased risk of asthma-related death associated with the Advair I’ve been taking.
They should advertise both of these medications together with “Highway to Hell” playing in the background.
My friend’s 12-year old daughter has been on Singular for years, along with a shopping bag full of ritalin and other meds. When I mentioned the fact that I just put up with my mild asthma because I’m concerned about the side effects, including loss of bone density, she said her daughter’s orthopod recommended bone density screening because the kid’s broken several bones.
I had to repeat the fact Singular’s a suspect in bone density loss several times before she was able to hear it. I emphasized that I wasn’t recommending she not take give it to her kid, just do some research so she’ll be on top of things. Mother is so afraid of rocking the meds boat she kept blocking out even the suggestion there might be a down side. She said “I’ll ask her doctor about it.” I had to point out that the lung doctor, who’s only interest is in the lungs, isn’t the doc to ask. The one to ask is the BONE doctor. Oh.
When we took this child to summer camp Mother handed me a medium-sized brown paper bag and asked me to hold it for her. I was stunned when she said “Those are Peggy’s meds. We need to take them to the camp nurse.” I was even more stunned when I looked around the cabin and noticed that every kid in the place had an equally loaded paper bag of the same size. What the heck are we doing nowadays???
Singulair kept me alive! I was so miserable a couple years back from severe allergies that wouldn’t respond to any normal allergy medication. I wouldn’t have minded, in that stuffed-up, constant state of sneezing, if I just dropped dead. Thanks to Singulair, I don’t suffer from seasonal allergies anymore. It’s the only drug that works for me.
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