Achtung! Achtung! malaria drug given to troops may cause psychotic rage

[bobbieinok]

http://optruth.com/main.cfm?actionId=blogShowExcerpts&blogId=14&year=2004&month=9&day=5&Action=ShowCalendar&lnav=7

About 7 articles down...

....

Meanwhile, a Google News Search for “Lariam,” the anti-malaria drug administered to soldiers heading to the Middle East, turns some stories, though most of them seem to be from the same wire story. Interesting, though, is this end segment of a story about three soldiers who are accused to abusing Iraqi prisoners:


“Martinez’s attorney brought a new wrinkle to the case by introducing testimony that the anti-malaria drug Larium, which was given to soldiers in Iraq, could have caused his client to be predisposed to assault. Steve Robinson, executive director of the Alexandria, Va., national Gulf War Resource Center, testified that some people who have taken the drug experienced side effects such as psychosis and uncontrollable rage.” (Read more).


The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) own website reported a change in the medical warning about Lariam (also called Mefloquine) in 2002. In part, the warning now notes:


“Mefloquine may cause psychiatric symptoms in a number of patients, ranging from anxiety, paranoia, and depression to hallucinations and psychotic behavior. On occasions, these symptoms have been reported to continue long after mefloquine has been stopped. Rare cases of suicidal ideation and suicide have been reported though no relationship to drug administration has been confirmed.” (Read more).

[Eloriel]

1. I think this drug was also implicated

in the rash of wife-killings at Fort Bragg a while back. It's nasty stuff.

[Karenina]

2. Duh.

[wrang_wrang]

3. I'm sure the mass murder of Iraqi civilians helps cause nightmares too

Mental illness, domestic violence, spousal battery, assault, robbery, murder; the unmeasured psychological toll of Bush's unnecessary war.

[soothsayer]

4. I'm sure they were testing a "killing without remorse" drug on them

or something like that. Don't forget, Rummy wants to develop drugs where soldiers can go without sleep altogether, plus one so they can forget all about the battles and killing and stuff afterwards. Plus the gov't is TOTALLY ALLOWED to test stuff on the military without their consent or knowledge.

Nice.

[Karenina]

5. AND when these guys show up at the V.A.

The doctors are given the runaround about what they've been exposed to.

[soothsayer]

8. yup, then 25 yrs later the truth comes out, and people say, Oh, how

terrible, but they wouldn't do that ANYMORE, thank goodness!

Our military industrial complex is monstrous.

[BeHereNow]

6. You mean THIS project?

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd01132003.html
sniplet:
"Pentagon dark lord Donald
Rumsfeld is shoveling billions of tax
dollars into the research furnaces
of federal laboratories and private
universities across the land in the
wide-ranging effort to spawn
"super soldiers," fired by drugs and
electromagnetic "brain zaps" to
fight without ceasing for days on
end. The work is being directed by
the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA)--yes, the
same outfit now laboring under
convicted terrorist-conspirator
John Poindexter to build the "Total
Information Awareness" network
that will allow the government to
monitor the electronic records
and communications of every
citizen."

I just watched the film "Amen." last night.
This after seeing Bush's Brain...

What better way for these EVIL people to
test their insidious pharma brews than to
make the vaccines mandatory for our service members?

BHN

[recoveringneocon]

7. Well...

Too bad they can't just have a couple gin-and-tonics LOL. The Quinine in the tonic water is quite effective in preventing malaria.

[Piltdown13]

9. This just pisses me off to no end

The dangerous side effects of Lariam have been WELL-KNOWN for many years now, to the point that many other countries have long since stopped giving the stuff to their troops/aid workers/travelers. Until recently, the only alternative that actually worked in most places (malaria is chloroquine/quinine resistant in much of Africa, SE Asia, and the Middle East) was an antibiotic, which of course has its own issues, notably increased photosensitivity in some individuals (and this is a serious reaction -- I had a friend who had to stay back at camp for days one field season and then cover up from head to toe or else burn so badly it hurt to move). But, a few years ago a new antimalarial was introduced with a MUCH less frightening side-effect profile. IMHO, it's just unconscionable to keep our troops on Lariam. Yes, it's true that most users don't have the severe psychiatric side effects, but common sense dictates that you probably shouldn't give drugs with potentially devastating psychiatric side effects to people heading into a war zone!