Hi Mom2
We have had good results with Singulair but it has been a bumpy road. It was prescribed by our daughter's gastroenterologist as a leukotriene inhibitor and we saw a jump in language and cognition when we started using it. However, just like the horror stories you read on the net, it immediately affected our daughter's sleep adversely and also irritated her gut a lot. I know some kids can tolerate Singulair with no problems -a friend's child is on 20mg a day and sleep through the night no problems.
When I brought up this problem with Judy Converse the nutritionist, she explained that Singulair impacts serotonin chemistry, so if a child has low serotonin to begin with, then it will affect sleep and mood. Singulair works on mast cells which have both histamine and serotonin; as a mast cell inhibitor, Singulair depletes serotonin, so it would make a child very irritable, have difficulty sleeping, and be very negative. That's why so many people have problems with it.
We use a low dose of Singulair and replenish serotonin with 5HTP (5-htp) and B group vitamins. This has solved the problem of sleep and mood. We are just about to try the spray to see if this is less irritating on the gut.
Here is an article which explains how Singulair depletes serotonin
Quote:
>> Differential release of serotonin and histamine from mast cells
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> THEOHARIS C. THEOHARIDES, PHILIP K. BONDY*, NIKOLAOS D. TSAKALOS†& PHILIP W. ASKENASE
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> Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA and *Veterans Administration Medical Center, West Spring Street, West Haven, Connecticut 06516, USA
> †Permanent address: Department of Internal Medicine, Aristotelian University School of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece.
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> Exocytosis dependent on calcium and metabolic energy has been established as the mechanism for the release of membrane-bound secretory products from various exocrine, endocrine and neural cells1. This has also been shown to be the case in mast cells, which have been used increasingly as a model secretory system2. The secretory granules of mast cells contain several mediators3, some of which, such as histamine, are known to participate in many immune reactions and allergic diseases4,5. Because of mast cell involvement in these clinical syndromes, as well as the role of histamine in gastric acid secretion6 and possibly in brain pathophysiology7, there has been great interest in the pharmacological modulation of histamine release from mast cells8. Serotonin is also stored in mast cell granules of several species but much less is known about its secretion. Because histamine and serotonin may have divergent functions in delayed hypersensitivity4,9, we hypothesized that these amines could undergo differential release. We now report that the tricyclic antidepressant drug amitriptyline (Elavil) inhibits histamine release from stimulated mast cells while permitting the release of serotonin. In these conditions, exocytosis of secretory granules is largely prevented, but serotonin is released by an unknown process which still requires calcium and metabolic energy. The ability to secrete differentially expands the physiological potential of the mast cell, and suggests that release of serotonin may not always indicate mast cell secretion via exocytosis of secretory granules.
Hope this helps.
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