Singulair side effect or just anxiety?

[Bluezeus321]

I know this med is posted a lot, and there are a ton of different side effects people experience but I am wondering if mine are related to Singulair or if it truly is anxiety. Sorry ahead of time for such a long post!

I recently experienced heart palpitations while driving, was lightheaded, faint, and my heart rate went up to 150. I went straight to the ER and while my BP was initially high, everything came down. They did an EKG, took labs, monitored everything for a few hours. Everything was normal (doctor said textbook normal) and there was no history of any issues, thyroid fine, electrolytes fine. They chalked it up to too much caffeine (as I had just worked out and drank some green tea after and probably had low blood sugar).

After that, I started feeling so anxious every day, every little change in my heart rate would make me nervous and hyper aware. I stopped drinking caffeine and tried calming techniques. Any time I drove again I would start to feel similar. Even after not drinking caffeine, taking my work outs slower, I felt anxious, which would speed up my heart. It even happened in the grocery store. I had another similar event to the first one, just not as bad (no tremors, heart rate didn’t go as high, but same feeling).

Now, I’m feeling even more anxious, any feeling in my chest I start to panic and get that feeling (even though checking my heart rate it doesn’t go that high). I’m more emotional now, crying at anything and for no reason. This is just not like me to this extreme, and I’ve never had palpitations or anxiety to this extent where I feel like I can’t walk down the stairs without heart rate changes, or working out anymore.

I’ve been on Singulair for a little less than 2 months. I did take it as a kid but don’t remember experiencing anything major. I was just reading about Singulair and the black box warning with psych effects. So now I’m wondering if this is exacerbating any current stress and causing extreme anxiety attacks? I’m also worried because I feel my doctor may brush it off (she didn’t warn me about these side effects or even tell me she was prescribing it for my asthma). How do you go off of it safely? I have Flovent and albuterol already (which worked fine before the Singulair I just had asthma flare up from a cold and was out of Flovent which is why she presumably prescribed Singulair). I have an appointment in a couple weeks with my doctor (don’t have walk ins) which I intend on discussing all of this but thinking I should message her first?

Any advice on stopping it? Could these symptoms be from Singulair? Would a pharmacist know how to safely stop without causing withdrawal symptoms? Thank you for any advice!

[Homely2]

Singular is different to Flovent, so unlikely to be prescribed just because you have run out of Flovent.

You need to tell your medic about your symptoms relatively quickly, if your medic will not help by seeing you earlier, you need to find one who will.

[Dairyman11]

From my experience, Singulair can cause anxiety.

[Horse459]

I had the same experience from Flovent. Had to stop it immediately. Fine with low dose of singular and my advair.

[Bluezeus321 in reply to Horse459]

Interesting! I never had that issue with Flovent but I did go off of it for awhile and just started again with Singulair. I used to have Advair and loved it, but my Dr. said it was being discontinued, it seems it was not DC’d.

[Ritagg in reply to Bluezeus321]

They have started a generic advair, which I started a month ago. Wonder if your dr meant that?

[JJ8675309]

It does cause anxiety. There is a facebook group named Montelukast (singulair) side effects support and discussion group. They have a lot of helpful information on there.