Mefloquine Lariam Larium
Lariam Check with a doctor or seek emergency help immediately if any of the following side effects occur: check with a doctor if any of the following side effects continue or are bothersome: Lariam Action USA Lariam Action explain why there is no Lariam Action group in the UK - schroll down the page on this link to find out why Read more about this situation in the UK On the above web site is a page explaining action taken in the UK against the manufacturer Roche. Since the mid-1990s there has been public concern in the UK about the possible side effects of the drug. A self-help support group, Lariam Action, was set up in 1995, but is now disbanded. After television publicity on the BBC consumer programme ‘Watchdog’ on 6th November 1995, and subsequent press reports, nearly 1000 people contacted the Bristol-based solicitors Lawrence Tucketts thinking they had a case against Roche. Some of them were actively involved in Lariam Action. The Lariam Legacy - A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4. April 2015 Producer: Deborah Dudgeon The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law published Their Conclusions After 40 years of experimental and licensed use where the intoxicating properties of mefloquine were poorly appreciated, the drug now appears to have significant forensic importance. As public and professional awareness and understanding grows of the drug's significant psychotropic and neurotoxic potential, the prior use of mefloquine is nearly certain to get increasing attention within criminal, civil, and military courts. In cases involving suicide, homicide, and other acts of violence or criminal conduct associated with mefloquine exposure, or in cases where a litigant alleges that exposure to mefloquine caused harm, the forensic psychiatrist may be called on to provide expert testimony at trial. In all cases, the relationship between the drug's administration and the symptoms in question must be carefully evaluated and the temporal relationship adequately established,198 to assign causation confidently. The pathophysiological insights presented in this review will aid the forensic psychiatrist in conducting an evaluation and in securing appropriate consultation in support of this goal. As evidence is increasingly clear that use of mefloquine is associated with a risk of long-term injury and harm, as well as death of self or others, so long as the drug remains licensed for use, physicians who continue to prescribe it must exercise caution to minimize potential liability. Such care includes implementing careful screening for contraindications and ensuring consideration of alternative medications. The insights of the present review also emphasize the critical importance of thoroughly documenting patient education should mefloquine be prescribed, including informing patients of those prodromal symptoms that should compel them to discontinue the medication immediately and seek medical assistance.96 However, as mefloquine intoxication that adversely affects decision-making may occur after only a single 250-mg tablet,40 and as the onset of psychosis may take place suddenly and even without prodromal symptoms, such education may minimize, but will clearly not eliminate,96 the risk of acute harm and subsequent neurotoxicity associated with the drug. Our evolving experience with mefloquine raises questions about the potential for lasting behavioral effects from other antimalarial medications, including those presently under development,199 as well as from those long assumed to be benign. Our experience with mefloquine reemphasizes that many decades may pass before the dangers of a drug are widely appreciated.10,186 In the particular case of mefloquine, the reasons for this delay, including those related to the unusual circumstances of its development and initial testing200 and its frequent use among individuals with limited personal autonomy and within highly regimented organizations, would clearly benefit from further exploration
Government Select Committee Inquiry from 2015 and concluded Lariam should be 'drug of last resort' for troops
BBC broadcast programmes about Lariam Call for Army to stop using malaria drug mefloquine
13 September 2016 The Defence Committee publishes the Government Response to the Committee's Fourth Report of Session 2015–16, "An acceptable risk? The use of Lariam for military personnel" in its Third Special Report of Session 2016–17 (HC 648). Reporting Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) Please report Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) to: UK Yellow Card Reporting for Patient and Health Professional reports of Adverse Drug Reactions USA and worldwide to the Food and Drug Administration for Patients and Healthcare Professionals Universal free, independent drug safety website - Rxisk Please follow APRIL on Twitter For latest news read the APRIL blog
AWARENESS SAVES LIVES
|