After taking montelukast for many years for mild allergy-related asthma, I weaned myself off about 2 years ago for this reason. Had no recurrence of the asthma symptoms, either, maybe due to all the other supplements I was taking.
I was just thinking about this today. There’s definitely nothing negative to report. I don’t know that there is anything I can specifically attribute to montelukast though either. I’m happy I’m on it though and I’ve been feeling good in general for the last couple of months since starting it. Thanks for checking.
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Thanks! You have swayed me… I’m going to speak to my doc about it.
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Best wishes to you! Please let us know how it goes.
I took it for allergies for a few years. I don’t remember why I stopped, but I had no issues and I’m prone to depression.
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Montelukast, an available and safe anti-asthmatic drug, prevents maladaptive remodelling and maintains cardiac functionality following myocardial infarction
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So for what’s it worth, I wanted to give my subjective experience with montelukast as of this moment.
1st night l took 10mg before bed. It made sleepy and definitely gave me nightmares. The nightmares were so unsettling that l waited a few days before l did another dose.
I made 2 adjustments after the first dose. I started with 2mg a day for 5 days and increased it an additional 2mg every 5 days until l reached the full dose. I also took the montelukast in the morning with breakfast. I still have dreams but they are not awful and l have been at the full dose for 4 days.
Potential/subjective benefits. My airways are more dilated. Also l would get hives periodically which montelukast has been effective for (used to take low dose naltrexone to keep them at bay). I’m not an asthmatic but l do have seasonal allergies.
As for neural inflammation, it could be helping but l am taking rapa, boswellia, aspirin, and melatonin too. I usually give interventions at least 3 months (if not deleterious along the way). So far it has been a significant net positive.
Sorry the long winded post. Thank you all for the knowledge and guidance.
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I said I’d report any positives or negatives so here’s my experience. I’ve officially decided to stop montelukast. My n1 was that it seemed fine/neutral for a couple months but in hindsight I suspect it was causing some mild neuropsychiatric side effects. I started it in May and by the end of August my tolerance to stress was noticeably reduced and I started having nightmares. I decided to take a break from it and then took one last Sunday for some fall allergies. Sunday night I had a pretty intense nightmare and was screaming in my sleep to the point that my husband decided he had no choice but to wake me up. Even my dogs were upset by it so needless to say I’m scraping this one. It was nice for allergies though. I’m not a mental health professional or anything but I do know enough about myself to know that’s not good for my quality of life!
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My teenage son has been taking Singulair for asthma for years, has not reported any side effects.
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Does Montelukast Cause Neuropsychiatric Side Effects?
In two large cohorts, researchers noted a small excess risk.
Montelukast is a leukotriene-receptor antagonist approved for asthma and allergic rhinitis. In 2020, after reviewing postmarketing reports of anxiety, sleep disturbances, depression, and suicidality with montelukast, the U.S. FDA required that a warning about neuropsychiatric events be placed on montelukast’s label. Subsequent studies yielded conflicting results about neuropsychiatric events associated with leukotriene-receptor antagonists. Now, two large retrospective studies offer more information
https://www.jwatch.org/na58696/2025/04/29/does-montelukast-cause-neuropsychiatric-side-effects
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A later study using oral film (sublingual?) dosing of 2 x 30mg/day of Montelukast showed signficant improvment in Alzheimers vs Placebo, but 10mg/day had no significant effect : Montelukast oral film Alzheimer’s study
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One of my kids was prescribed it for night time coughing and wheezing. He is too young to know about black box warnings or have nocebo effects, but it definitely gave him nightmares and disturbed sleep, so we stopped it.
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Used the drug for decades for allergies and mild asthma. From clinical experience only - young children seem to respond well which is a blessing because it’s such easy medication to take and it’s non-steroidal. Definitely there were reports of behavioral issues, sleep disturbance, one parent reported that their child saw blood in the shower. All resolved after stopping the medication.
Adults rarely report any improvement for intended purpose or any side effects.
Montelukast is leukotriene receptor blocker, that’s a very small sliver of inflammatory cascade that maybe important for some allergic rhinosinusitis or asthma phenotypes.
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https://www.montelukast-repurposed.org/2023_-_emory_qc_review .html
Scroll down.
Emory trial results suggest tampering
[Dec 2023]. The preliminary results on the Emory trial for montelukast were finally posted in December 2023 in clinicaltrials.gov after a year of waiting and the results were sent back to Emory by the FDA quality control for corrections. The results were historic in that it was the first time in a FDA trial that early Alzheimer’s and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) participants showed cognitive improvement over a year’s time. However there was a problem with the results. The results on the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery Tests showed that the placebo participants showed significant improvement but the montelukast treated participants declined after one year. Further the placebo group also improved in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid and tau measurements. This is a really unexpected result because you just don’t see improvement among untreated Alzheimer’s patients. CSF amyloid and tau measurements also improved in the placebo group. This shows that there was some tampering going on during the trial.
The trial was double blinded so neither participant nor doctor knew who was getting the real medication. Evidently someone switched the montelukast and placebo medications between the two groups. I hope the FDA and Emory will investigate, but I believe that they going to find it more convenient to cover it up. I said earlier that Dr Hajjar, who was in charge of the trial, took a position right after its completion with the University of Texas Southwestern, which has major connections with Biogen.
Results below:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03991988?tab=history&a=9#version-content-panel
"Emory montelukast Alzheimer trial
To find preliminary results
Scroll down and hit “Results Submitted tab”.
Scroll down to Blue table and hit “Submission with QC comments”.
Scroll to section 8 for CSF Amyloid levels. Scroll to section 9 for CSF Tau levels. Scroll to section 11 for NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery results.
The NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery shows the treated group went from 35.4 to 33.0, which indicates a decline. The placebo group went from 35.4 to 37.3 and showed improvement, not something you would expect to see. There were no serious adverse events in either group."
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