Asthma Drug Affects My Son's Behavior

White Oak, SCNikki's eight year old son has asthma—he was diagnosed with the respiratory illness when he was just five years old. Since that time he's been on albuterol, but it seems to be making things worse, not better.

"My Boyfriend alerted me initially to the fact that there were potential problems with the asthma medications my son was taking—he had seen something on television," Nikki said. "So I went online and realized that my son was displaying some of the symptoms that other people were describing.

The doctors had prescribed albuterol and another low dose inhaler, for shortness of breath. When they prescribed the albuterol my son was wheezing quite badly, and he was supposed to take it twice a day. Then they reduced his use of the inhaler to an 'as needs' basis. The only time he really demonstrates 'asthma symptoms' is when he has a cold. But I noticed that the more I gave him the albuterol, the more he seemed to need it."

In fact, Nikki's son's wheezing didn't improve with the albuterol. And he was starting to demonstrate other symptoms such as sadness, restlessness, and confusion.

"When I talked to the paediatrician about the symptoms my son was experiencing and the connection with the asthma medications, he said he didn't know anything about it," Nikki said. "So I looked at the website. That's when I saw that people were complaining about the asthma drugs, and possibly taking or organizing some legal action.

Then I went to see a new paediatrician. He said if I was worried about the drug then I didn't have to give it to my son. The albuterol was only meant to be a rescue medication. I thought – this is crazy – the doctors keep prescribing the drugs for him. I guess if I didn't complain they would keep prescribing it and I would keep giving it to him.

My son had become very agitated, and was demonstrating behavioral problems in school, he was acting out in class, and he would keep telling me he was sad. The doctors said maybe he was depressed, and they suggested that he could have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). I had conflicting opinions from different doctors. So I told the paediatrician that I wasn't going to give my son the albuterol any more. Since then my son has stopped saying he was sad. I never thought that medicine could be the cause of this."

Nikki is encouraged to see that people will be fighting this legally. "Until recently, I had no idea that a mass complaint had surfaced. If people are bringing a class action suit against a drug then the government should go ahead and take it off the market," she said. "If something is causing health problems, especially in children, then they should take action."

In fact the asthma drugs that people are concerned about are Advair Diskus, Advair HFA, Foradil Aerolizer, and Serevent Diskus. All these medications now carry a black box warning that states they may increase the chance of severe asthma episodes and death when those episodes occur.