WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- In an eerie echo of a long-running controversy in the United States, Australian soldiers are claiming they suffered serious mental problems after taking an anti-malaria drug.
The drug is mefloquine, known under the brand name Lariam. Hundreds of Australian soldiers on missions in the nearby country of East Timor were prescribed the drug to ward off a deadly strain of malaria.
"Dozens of soldiers came home from East Timor hearing voices and suffering from paranoia and suicidal tendencies," Paul Dyer of The Sunday Mail, an Australian newspaper, wrote earlier this month. Many have left the military and there have been reports of suicide, he added.
"Private Jason Rule, who served in ... East Timor in 1999, said he had to get out of defence because the Larium pills were 'doing my head in,'" Dyer wrote. Another soldier, who served in East Timor in 2000 and in 2003, "also left after suffering anger problems, stomach disorders and long periods of paranoia."
In the United States, a number of soldiers who took Lariam in Iraq and Afghanistan reported disabling mental problems. The Pentagon denies the drug caused severe or widespread side effects, instead attributing such problems to post-traumatic stress disorder or pre-existing mental illness.
United Press International reported in 2002 that mounting evidence suggests Lariam has caused such severe mental problems that in some cases it led to suicide.
The Food and Drug Administration warned in 2003 that the drug had been linked to reports of suicide and that severe side effects have been reported to last long after people stopped taking it. It ordered that everyone prescribed Lariam be told in writing about those possibilities.
After the Army largely quit using the drug in Iraq, the number of suicides there fell by at least half in 2004.
The issue of Lariam's use in the military first surfaced after three Army Special Forces soldiers who served in Afghanistan killed their wives, and subsequently themselves, after returning to Fort Bragg, N.C., in the summer of 2002. At least two of the soldiers had taken the drug.
A team from the Army Surgeon General's office ruled out Lariam as a common factor in the rash of deaths, citing two other homicides that summer involving Army personnel who were not deployed and did not take the drug.
A Pentagon spokesman said in a statement to UPI earlier this year that it has not changed its policies on anti-malaria drugs.
"In the case of malaria protection and treatment," said spokesman Jim Turner, "DoD healthcare providers follow a policy of using FDA-approved drugs and CDC recommendations for the use of mefloquine (Lariam), doxycycline and Malarone. ... there is no change in the Department's use of these drugs."
The Pentagon is doing its own study on malaria drugs after concerns raised in Congress and elsewhere about the drug's safety. Turner said that study, by military and civilian scientists, was under way but would take months to complete.
Critics of the drug said the Australian experience lends credence to problems cited by soldiers and travelers in the United States and elsewhere.
"U.S. troops have been telling us the same thing ever since Somalia in the early 1990s," said Jeanne Lese, co-chair of Lariam Action USA, an advocacy group. "At least 19 GIs have been recently diagnosed with post-mefloquine brain damage.
"Yet the DoD denies mefloquine is a problem. It's nearly impossible for sick soldiers to get accurate diagnoses, and treatment for mefloquine toxicity in the service or through the VA is nonexistent. Other effective antimalarial drugs are available. Why are we giving a known toxic drug to our troops?"
Ricky Bagolie, a New Jersey attorney who is counsel to an Australian law firm considering legal action against manufacturer Hoffmann-La Roche and the Australian military on behalf of about 150 soldiers, also drew a connection.
"The same thing that went on here went on over there. The troops are coming back and having real problems," Bagolie said.
"Our position on the drug is that it's dangerous. One guy came back from East Timor, a regular Australian guy, and joined the Taliban. It looks like it's related at least in part to the psychosis that developed after being on Lariam."
Terence Hurley, a spokesman for Roche, did not respond Thursday to a request for comment. Roche has defended the drug as safe and said appropriate warnings have been added to the product label.
"Data from well-designed studies have shown Lariam to be safe and well-tolerated," Hurley said in an earlier statement to UPI. "Lariam has been used effectively and safely for treating and preventing malaria by more than 25 million people worldwide over the past 19 years.
"The benefit-risk ratio continues to be favorable for Lariam especially in areas with high-risk exposure to malaria. Lariam is an important and valuable drug that's effective in fighting a life-threatening disease."
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