MOOD AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH MONTELUKAST USAGE IN PEDIATRIC CASES

Aim: As leukotriene antagonists are known to be safe in pediatric cases, their side effects should be considered. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the mood and behavioral changes arised with montelukast treatment in pediatric cases. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study was enrolled with the records of totally 172 patients, 97 of whom were considered as the study group and had the diagnoses of allergic diseases like asthma, allergic rhinitis, etc. and were given montelukast treatments, 75 of whom were considered as the control group and had the diagnoses of allergic and non allergic diseases and were not given montelukast treatments. All patients’ demographical datas, mood and behavioral situations of the all allergic and non allergic patients at the beginning of the study, mood and behavioral changes in the allergic study group patients before montelukast treatments (group A), during montelukast treatments (group B) and after montelukast treatments (group C) were evaluated. Results: Mean of age was 6.11 in the study, 8.12 in the control group (p=0.798). All of the asthmatic patients and all of the non asthmatic patients did not differ from each other in mood and behavioral disorders existed at the beginning of the study (p>0.05). Sleep disturbance (p=0.021), irritation (p=0.000), aggressiveness (p=0.004) and hallucination (p=0.031) were observed more in group B when compared with the patients in group A. Mood and behavioral changes seen in group C did not differ from group A (p>0.05). Conclusions: Patients who are mentally stable before montelukast treatments may have some disturbances in mood and behaviors during treatments so attention should be paid for such reactions. Clinicians should suspect if the patient has unexpected reactions after montelukast. And further studies are needed to evaluate these datas.