A rant about medical practices and pharmaceuticals

My 5 year old daughter was prescribed Flovent around 5 weeks ago to manage her asthmatic airways. She had a bad cold back in early November. She then had a lingering cough that persisted into December. Her pediatrician said she needed a maintenance inhaler and prescribed two puffs of Flovent twice a day.

We started seeing some behavior changes within the first few days. Just some tantrums that didn't seem appropriate for her age. My wife called the pediatrician's office and told the nurse who relayed the message to the doctor. We got a message back saying to continue the Flovent for asthma and that Flovent only treats the lungs. Any behavior issues wouldn't be connected to the Flovent.

Fast forward to January 6th and the behaviors had worsened. My sweet, calm, amicable daughter threw a two hour tantrum that was unmanageable. Nothing worked. She hit us repeatedly. Screamed at the top of her lungs. Threw objects at us. Destroyed her room. It got so bad we had to block the two doors inside her room to keep her from destroying the house. She screamed horrible things to us over and over again. That she doesn't love us and never loved us. It was pure insanity. Ten times worse than anything we had seen at age two or three.

She hadn't throw a major tantrum since around the time she turned four. But there we were, dealing with the worst tantrum imaginable at 5 and a half years old.

This continued every day, sometimes multiple times a day for 11 days. She said there were snakes chasing her. She would suddenly start screaming for us saying she needed to be held. She reverted back to sucking her thumb after not sucking her thumb since she turned 4.

We weaned her off the Flovent starting on the 6th. We called the pediatrician on the 8th to report what was going on. Again, they dismissed Flovent as causing it. They asked if there were any head injuries. Any trauma that had happened. I brought up that the side effects for Flovent list aggression, anxiety, irritability. I was told those were extremely rare, but if we wanted to stop the drug, we could. They suggested we try a smaller dose.

As of January 16th, the rage fits have subsided, but we're still dealing with oppositional defiance. My wife is a saint and has more patience than I could ever muster. Still though, this morning, my daughter disrupted the entire morning routine over some irrational issue.

Our pediatrician (at a large, popular practice in Birmingham BTW) dismissed our concerns. The list of side effects says this is rare. And maybe it is, but a little homework reveals some interesting things:

Flovent (and other inhaled corticosteroids) can reduce white matter in the brain. This was confirmed via MRI. It can also directly hinder the amygdala from functioning correctly leading to significant struggles with impulse control, fear ideation, and aggressive behaviors.

Askapatient has 20 years worth of patient reviews claiming severe behavior issues for kids taking Flovent. Nightmares, hallucinations, aggression, violence, anxiety, moodiness. 337 reviews, and the majority of them are concerning behavioral changes associated with the medication. Worth noting is that other inhaled medications for asthma (albuterol, Proventil, QVAR, Dulera) have no where near the number of reviews as Flovent.

But listen to your doctors. Trust the science. Take your meds.