Malaria Drug given to Military Linked to Neurological and Psychiatric Effects and Increased Suicide

‘Horror Movie In A Pill’: Side-Effects Of Lariam Worse Than Malaria

AN RTÉ INVESTIGATION into the use of Lariam as an anti-malarial by the Irish Defence Forces found a “plausible link” between the drug and a number of suicides of soldiers.

“These figures are consistent with Lariam causing symptoms of mental illness including anxiety and depression, and are also consistent with the known association of these conditions with a strongly increased risk of suicide. These figures also indicate evidence of more serious events, such as psychosis, potentially leading to more sudden and impulsive suicides,” said Dr Remington Nevin, an epidemiologist and former US Army major.

au.businessinsider.com...

Linked to Afghanistan Massacre?

The effects of this anti-malarial drug have been controversial for some time now and this is just another investigation raising the alarm again. The drug was called into question in the Robert Bales case - the soldier who massacred innocent Afghans and covered in the thread below. The Pentagon has neither confirmed nor denied whether Bales was on the drug.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

The military says it has "shifted away" from the use of the drug, but not completely banned it. Hmmmm.

“Today’s soldiers may be less likely to adhere to mefloquine chemoprophylaxis because of growing awareness of its strong association with psychiatric symptoms and its potential to induce neurotoxicity,” Nevin concluded. “Senior U.S. military medical officials now acknowledge that the neuropsychiatric side effects caused by mefloquine may confound the diagnosis and management of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, making its routine use less desirable.

nation.time.com...

The damage has likely already been done. Way too often over the past few years, there have been stories about violence by returning vets, problems with mental illness, and increasing suicides.

Military suicides rise to a record 349, topping number of troops killed in combat

articles.washingtonpost.com...

The military has known about this connection since at least 2009. Actually, just found an article where they were questioning the link between the drug and violence in 2004.
www.cnn.com...

Also interesting, it's freely available online and most likely provided to ordinary people visiting or living in known malaria zones.

And people wonder why testing on animals is a bad thing.

reply to post by Tuttle

But, why torture animals when there are perfectly healthy disposable humans to test our evil on......./sarcasm

No torture of any living thing should be used to "advance" our civilization.

Another agent orange.
How long before the VA admits this drug cause so many problems and make this persumtive service connected for anyone that served

reply to post by Maluhia


That is pretty damn scary but it doesn't cover everything.

In 1989 I was attached to a unit in Honduras Central America. 3 Months before the unit ws deployed we had to take a series of pills for Malaria. Within the first week most experienced Severe Night Mares. As time when on there were other side effects like waking from a night mare and being sick to your stomach and having dry heaves when there was nothing left to come up.

After the second month people were getting noticeably aggressive with each other. By the end of the third month the Article-15 had become common place. 99% were due to fighting. While we were deployed no one got Malaria and after about a month the nightmares and aggressiveness subsided.

They never told us that there would be side effects just that it would prevents us from getting Malaria.

Though I don't think it is connected, my Battle Buddy of nearly 20 years committed suicide 3 years ago in March.

reply to post by ShadellacZumbrum


Wow, so sorry for your awful experience. But wondering, did anyone in command ever report these problems? My research shows that lariam was first authorized for use in 1989. You may have been the first guinea pigs.

However, mefloquine was not approved by the FDA for prophylactic use until 1989. This approval was based primarily on compliance, while safety and tolerability were overlooked.[18] Because of the drug's very long half-life, the Centers for Disease Control originally recommended a mefloquine dosage of 250 mg every two weeks; however, this caused an unacceptably high malaria rate in the Peace Corps volunteers who participated in the approval study, so the drug regimen was switched to once a week.[3]

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by Maluhia


It is really hard to tell. If you know how the Military Chain of Command works you know everything is on a Need to Know basis.

reply to post by ShadellacZumbrum

Yes, I understand and "nobody needs to know" when it's bad. Thanks for your insight.

reply to post by Maluhia


After reading this my curiosity is stirred.

I guess I am more disturbed than anything.

wow - this is still going on ????? the french paras banned its use years ago

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Its use is banned in some places, but it seems to be readily available. I even read where it's purportedly used as a recreational drug in some parts of the world.

reply to post by Maluhia


The worse part of all this is, the fact people like myself have gone into the military without one set of health issues before hand, and coming out with a whole new set of health issues we had no problems with before. It's not just the 30 some shots you get in basic or before a TDY ( deployment ), it's also the grease, oil, fuel, hydro fluid, paint, halon, the various other chemicals TOXIC but used for functions. Needless to say the base I was stationed at, still had yet to remove it's asbestos ridden paint, insulation, and various other 50s hazards.

WHY are they using that drug? I"m on the anti-malaria drug PLAQUINEL and have been for 3 years. (I'll be on it until the day I die). This is the drug that's been used, rather successfully, for decades. Most people can take this drug without any major side effects. So why the switch?

(Plaquinel is taken by people with Sjogrens and Lupus and R.A. ... it changes the immune system so that the autoimmune disease doesn't attack the body as hard)

reply to post by ShadellacZumbrum

Sounds like Plaquinel. It can give some very strange dreams .. nightmares sometimes.
A high dose for a few weeks especially. The malaria dose is something like 800 mg day.
The dose I"m on is 400 mg a day and i've been on it for 3 years.
I get strange dreams .... but nothing like with the malaria 800 mg day dose I'm sure ...

reply to post by FlyersFan


It wasn't a daily dose. It was a strange regimen. Something like 1 big pill to start and then 2 weeks later a small pill then 2 weeks later another dose then 4 weeks later 2 doses then 2 weeks later another dose and the for the last dose it was another big pill. It was Very unusual how it was spaced out.

So basicaly the military are using its soldiers as guinea pigs monitoring what affects these drugs have on soldiers in stressful combat deployment. They will be collecting results and analyzing them so drug A had this effect on X number of soldiers in a particular type of environment. Medical histories, mission reports, assessments of officers will all be collated to understand how better to refine these drugs. X number of soldiers killed themselves, X number of soldier apparently excelled and go to the next level of drug treatment. Drug B had this effect on so many so on and so forth.

Sorry but if thats the case it just seems like some nightmare dystopian hell world where if you join the military you are no better than a slave for the shadow corporations that control our world.

Be all you can be LOL.

reply to post by Tuttle

Either using them as guinea pigs or grossly negligent. A bit of both I imagine. They do have a history - as someone earlier mentioned - agent orange, for one.

reply to post by Maluhia


To be fair I very much doubt there is any negligence, these people have the most advancement and sophisticated labs in the world with an infinite budget. They know exactly what they are doing. What these drugs are I do not know, they are more than likely for commercial release at some stage, but require a lot of kinks to be ironed out first, or they generaly are just curious in ways with which they can produce better soldiers, who knows eh.

reply to post by Maluhia


meanwhile in related news

[Editor's Note: Jim Humble has been trying to tell the world for over a decade that MMS COMPLETELY cures people of malaria - usually within 24 hours. You will see from the YouTube video embedded further below, that all 154 Ugandan test subjects, verified to have malaria with a blood test, were completely cured in a day. The majority, 143, were malaria free the very next day upon re-testing. The 11 patients who still had the malaria parasite, were given a second dose of MMS on Day 2, and by Day 3 were completely free of malaria. It's important to realize that the successes demonstrated in this video with curing malaria could also apply to many other "incurable" disease conditions. You can read all about MMS at this link and learn to make a convenient version of MMS called CDS Water at this link. Forward this article to everyone you know. This is tremendous information and the entire world can benefit from the germicidal capabilities of MMS. ...Ken Adachi]

educate-yourself.org...
Jim Humble has been literally forced to establish a "church" in the Dominican Republic
to protect himself from multiple attempts at destroying him by big pharma's lapdogs...

I've gotten Lariam, and it's everything you hear it is. (google lariam and bedlam on ats, I've been commenting on it for a while)

I am really nasty tempered on it, way more so than normal. It gives you some serious sleep issues too.

However, I had thought the Army limited that to SF these days.