TRAVELLERS who take the antimalarial drug mefloquine (Lariam) are almost
eight times as likely to suffer serious psychiatric side effects, including mood
swings and psychosis, as those taking the older combination of proguanil and
chloroquine, says a group of British researchers.
The team from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine reports in
the latest issue of the British Medical Journal that 1 in 140
adults taking mefloquine had to stop treatment because of the severity of mental
disturbance. With the older treatment, the incidence of such side effects was
only 1 in 1100 (“Malaria pill stands accused”,
Â鶹´«Ã½, 27 April, p 14).
