June 20, 2018

Malaria Medicine & PTSD SUICIDES

Jack Kemp

From the Huffington Post in 2013, with quite an eye catching, accusatory title written by the physician/author:

Mefloquine: The Militaryâ€™s Suicide Pill

NOTE:

Former Army Epidemiologist and Preventative Medicine Officer

Remington Nevin, MD, MPH, is a former Army epidemiologist and Preventive Medicine officer and a doctoral student in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Nevin serves as a consultant and expert witness in cases involving claims of mefloquine toxicity and recently testified to the U.S. Senate on the drugâ€™s toxic effects.

THE ARTICLE:

In late July, 2013, the FDA issued a powerful "black boxâ€ safety warning for a drug which has been taken by hundreds of thousands of troops to prevent malaria. The drug is called mefloquine, and it was previously sold in the U.S. by F. Hoffman-La Roche under the trade name Lariam. Since being developed by the U.S. military over four decades ago, mefloquine has been widely used by troops on deployments in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read the whole article at the Huffington Post.

From the Veterans' charity website of Backpacks For Life:

https://www.backpacksforlife.org/blog/malaria-mimics-ptsd

Malaria Medicine Side Effects Mimic PTSD

For years, U.S. soldiers were prescribed a preventative malaria medication which is linked to causing symptoms and side effects that mimic PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury. The drug, Mefloquine, was commonly prescribed to soldiers that deployed to certain regions like Iraq and Afghanistan,where Malaria was present. What researchers are finding is that soldiers with certain side effects from the medication,were misdiagnosed as having PTSD. Symptoms can last for years after the person takes the medication and since the symptoms are similar to that of PTSD, it is a challenge to distinguish between PTSD and Mefloquine induced toxicity.

Mefloquine was first approved for use by the Army in 1989 however researchers are urging that military officials should now call for the drug to be permanently banned.Since 2015, there has been a significant decrease in the number of Mefloquine prescriptions written. There are other preventatives that the Department of Defense relies on at this point but will prescribe Mefloquine if the person is unable to take other preventatives.

If you or someone you know was taking Mefloquine and has symptoms like anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations,nightmares, cognitive difficulties and trouble focusing, please visit http://www.warrelatedillness.va.gov/

www.warrelatedillness.va.gov

The website for the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center. It contains information for Veterans and providers on diagnosis and treatment combat related illnesses and injuries including exposure related illnesses and mild to moderate traumatic brain injury.

Malaria med & PTSD part 3

Jack Kemp

Today, 11:01 AMYou;danamartha2014@yahoo.com;robertjredmond@gmail.com;

I also found another article on Mefloquine from 2015 by Denise Williams in Chicago Now that includes this quote:

http://www.chicagonow.com/uncommon-sense/2015/02/managing-symptoms-mefloquine-toxicity-post-traumatic-stress-injury-20150211/

BEGIN QUOTE

It would be silly to say that everyone with either mefloquine toxicity or Post Traumatic Stress Injury will suddenly get better by removing these substances from their diets. But, it may help alleviate some symptoms. Perhaps one day, the standard medical treatment for these neurological injuries will be to remove everything from the body that acts on, affects or impacts the nervous system. Coupled with the best, most effective treatment modality, Cognitive Processing Therapy and a prescription for Lyrica, Cymbalta or other drugs developed for neuropathy, we may effect a true cure for th

Take Control of Your Medical Care

In the meantime, be your own medical advocate. Take control of your health and treatment. If you are on the VA cocktail, make an appointment with a qualified, experienced therapist who is trained in Cognitive Processing Therapy. Tell them you want to get off the cocktail. Do the work, and CPT is work. Then, contact your VA doctor and tell them you are doing CPT and want to get off the cocktail.

BUT â€“ Donâ€™t just stop taking the prescriptions, whatever they are. As dangerous as these drugs are, it is more dangerous to simply stop taking them. Do so ONLY with the guidance, care and monitoring of a doctor.

I canâ€™t stress this enough.Do. Not. Just. Stop. Taking. The. Cocktail.

If your VA doctor wonâ€™t help you wean off, get help from the counselor or therapist that is teaching you CPT to find another doctor who will.It has probably taken a very long time to get to a VA doctor, and the idea of navigating the system all over again in search of another is daunting to say the least. You do have to be your own advocate, but you donâ€™t have to do it alone. If this is a course of action you are looking to take on, contact The Vet Center for CPT and help getting off the cocktail, and/or your county Veterans Assistance Commission. These are the best local resources, neither are "the VA", and both should be the first stops for every veteran needing to file a VA claim or navigate the system.

END OF QUOTE

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