Worry Spreads Over G.I. Drug Side Effects

[Guest guest]

I am so sick of any adverse event being reported as " anecdotal " . As far as

I'm concerned, any supposed benefits from many drugs could be described as

" anecdotal " too. Why aren't scientists forced to provide " scientific

evidence " showing these drugs really do what they're purported to do?

Furthermore, it's high time someone looked into the link of any drug using

fluorine in it's chemical structure to changes in brain chemistry that cause

these side effects.

(Lariam = me-FLO-quine) just like (Prozac = FLU-ox-e-tine)

From: " Hirschfeld " <mhirschf@...>

" Vera Hassner Sharav " <veracare@...>

CC: " Cassandra Casey " <israelswarrior@...>

Subject: Worry Spreads Over G.I. Drug Side Effects

Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 19:33:25 -0500

Worry Spreads Over G.I. Drug Side Effects

RED NOVA

Posted on: Saturday, 12 February 2005, 12:00 CST

http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=127039

SAN DIEGO -- As a volunteer firefighter, Georg-s Pogany had seen

disfigured bodies pulled from wrecked cars. But something very different

happened when the Army interrogator saw the mangled remains of an Iraqi

soldier.

He became panicked, disoriented and that night reached for both his loaded

pistol and rifle as he thought he saw the enemy bursting into his room.

Pogany asked his superiors for help; the Army packed him home to face

charges of cowardice - the first such case since Vietnam.

None of it made sense to Pogany until he learned more about the white pills

the Army gave him each week to prevent malaria.

The drug's manufacturer warned of rare but severe side effects including

paranoia and hallucinations. It became his defense: The pills made him snap.

The Army dropped all charges, a spokesman later saying that Pogany " may have

a medical problem that requires care and treatment. "

Pogany is among the current or former troops sent to Iraq who claim that

Lariam, the commercial name for the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, provoked

disturbing and dangerous behavior. The families of some troops blame the

drug for the suicides of their loved ones. Though the evidence is largely

anecdotal, their stories have raised alarm in Congress, and the Pentagon has

stopped giving out a pill it probably never needed to give to tens of

thousands of troops in Iraq in the first place.

" What are we doing giving drugs that cause hallucinations, confusion,

psychotic behavior to people that carry weapons and hold secret clearances? "

asked Pogany, 33, who is now seeking a medical discharge. " It doesn't pass

the common-sense test. "

The U.S. military, which developed the drug after the Vietnam War, maintains

that Lariam is safe and effective, though officials have expressed some

concern and the military tells its pilots not to take Lariam.

In written guidance on the drug last year, the military urged commanders to

send for a medical evaluation anyone who showed behavioral changes after

taking the drug, " especially ... if they carry a weapon " - a description of

nearly all U.S. troops in Iraq.

" Delay could put the service member or your unit at risk, " the guide said.

Lariam is among the drugs recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention for treatment and prevention of malaria, which kills

about 1 million people worldwide each year. The drug's New Jersey-based

manufacturer, Roche Pharmaceuticals, points out that more than 30 million

people worldwide have used Lariam over 20 years.

" There is no reliable scientific evidence that Lariam is associated with

violent acts or criminal conduct, " Roche spokesman Terence Hurley wrote in

an e-mailed response to questions.

Further blurring the issue, the side effects associated with Lariam closely

mirror symptoms of stress disorders related to combat, making diagnosis

difficult.

Still, the pill has dedicated critics who believe it's causing problems that

are only beginning to be understood. A review by the Department of Veterans'

Affairs found 34 articles in medical journals about patients who took Lariam

and became paranoid, psychotic or behaved strangely.

Within the civilian medical community, faith in the drug is mixed among

doctors who specialize in tropical diseases. Two said they routinely

prescribe it to travelers and believe troop complaints are overblown.

Another criticized the military's use of a drug with a known history of

psychiatric complications.

Dr. G. Olds, professor and chairman of medicine at the Medical

College of Wisconsin, is among Lariam's critics.

" There's a strong recommendation not to use Lariam for those who depend on

fine motor skills, " he said. " Do you call firing an M-16 a fine motor skill?

I do. "

Doctors at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego have diagnosed a disorder

in the region of the brain that controls balance in 18 service members who

took Lariam, among them Pogany.

The Pentagon's records show the number of Lariam prescriptions issued to

active-duty personnel nearly doubled from 18,704 in 2002 to 36,451 the next

year, said Lt. Col. , a program director for deployment

medicine. Since prescriptions issued at remote locations aren't counted,

actual numbers may be higher.

Shortly after the March 2003 invasion, military doctors determined another

malaria drug would do the job with fewer side effects. Around the same time,

the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that doctors should give

patients revised information, underscoring that some Lariam users experience

severe anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, depression and think about killing

themselves.

Troops were supposed to receive those kinds of warnings, but several current

and former soldiers interviewed for this story said they did not - and that

they continued taking the drug in Iraq as recently as 2004. In that year,

said, the number of prescriptions fell to 12,363.

Concerns about those taking the drug weren't new. Some U.S. and Canadian

forces deployed to Somalia in the early 1990s reported strange behavior.

Lariam came up as a possible explanation after four Fort Bragg, N.C.,

soldiers killed their wives over 43 days in 2002. An Army probe ruled out

Lariam, which was only prescribed to two of the soldiers.

Last year, the assistant defense secretary for health affairs ordered a

review of the drug's use based on troop concerns. Many who complained came

from the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Carson, Colo. A base

spokesman referred all questions to the Pentagon.

In a letter last month, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., pressed Defense

Secretary Rumsfeld to release results of the Pentagon's

investigation. Feinstein has said there is enough evidence in the warnings

from Lariam's maker " to make the causal link between the drug and many of

the serious adverse events experienced by service members. "

Military officials now concede Lariam wasn't needed in Iraq - and not just

because, according to the Pentagon, no malaria infections have been reported

among U.S. forces there.

Troops sent to Kuwait in 1991 for Operation Desert Storm were given another

anti-malarial, chloroquine. Before the Iraq invasion, the Armed Forces

Medical Intelligence Center in Fort Detrick, Md., which is charged with

evaluating medical risks, was concerned that a deadly malaria strain in the

region might have become resistant to chloroquine. They relied on reports

from the World Health Organization and U.S. Special Operations units sent to

northern Iraq.

In a series of reports before the invasion, the intelligence center

extrapolated that - without bug spray, mosquito nets or other preventive

measures - about 1 in 2,000 troops could pick up a deadly

chloroquine-resistant malaria strain, according to a spokesman, Army Lt.

Col. Birmingham.

In March 2003, U.S. Central Command recommended the use of Lariam or another

drug, doxycycline, in high-risk areas in Iraq. The idea was " to err on the

side of caution, " rather than assume chloroquine would work, said

of the Pentagon's deployment medicine program.

Some commanders chose Lariam because it could be taken once a week rather

than daily like doxycycline, whose main side effects included sensitivity to

sunlight.

By July 2003, the military had determined the chloroquine-resistant strain

wasn't in Iraq. Chloroquine then became the drug of choice.

" That's the saddest part, " said Howell, a widow with two children

after her husband killed himself in Colorado Springs, Colo. " There was never

a need. "

Howell blames Lariam for what happened a few weeks after her husband, a

veteran Green Beret, returned home. In March 2004, Chief Warrant Officer

Howell went from " normal to murderous " in a half-hour, his wife

said, and ended his life in his front yard with a bullet to the head.

Critics of the drug in organizations such as Lariam Action USA and the

National Gulf War Resources Center believe Lariam is connected to the surge

in military suicides in 2003, when 23 people deployed to Iraq and Kuwait

took their lives. The suicide rate dropped after Lariam's use was halted in

Iraq.

Former Army Spc. Don Dills and his wife say he grew anxious, paranoid and

depressed after taking Lariam for seven months in Iraq. Dills, 22, says he

" went crazy " on a family visit to Mississippi last year and wound up jailed

for robbery. When Dills' wife called her husband's first sergeant about the

arrest, he told her: Look into Lariam.

Dills, who like Pogany and Howell was based at Fort Carson, was kicked out

of the military shortly after he wound up in a psychiatric ward for problems

he and his wife contend are linked to Lariam.

" The bottom line is they know what's going on, " said Elicia Dills, 25, of

Pueblo, Colo. " They just don't know how to deal with the can of worms they

opened. "

---

On the Net:

http://www.deploymenthealth.mil/mefloquine.asp

http://www.Lariam.com/

http://www.Lariaminfo.org/

Story from REDNOVA NEWS:

http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=127039

Published: 2005/02/12 12:00:00 CST

© Rednova 2004