Malaria drug links elite soldier suicides

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (UPI)

A startling pattern of violence and suicide by America's most elite soldiers has followed their use of a controversial anti-malaria drug, an investigation by United Press International and CNN has found. ..

Six Special Forces soldiers who took their lives are all believed to have taken the drug, according to the UPI-CNN investigation. The cable news network broadcast a segment on the joint investigation Tuesday.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein voiced concern about Lariam and the Special Forces suicides. The California Democrat had previously written key government officials seeking an urgent review of Lariam use. ..

Instead, the Army said, the deaths were linked to "failed personal relationships, financial crises, legal difficulties and mental problems like depression and psychosis" -- the same factors that trigger suicide in the general public, magnified by ready access to guns.

The psychotic behavior and suicides are particularly jarring because Special Forces soldiers are highly trained and psychologically vetted. An Army study in 2000 showed Special Forces soldiers produce more of a chemical in the brain that helps them cope with and recover from extreme duress.

"It's just antithetical to their whole practice of their craft to suddenly lose control, become depressed, paranoid, hallucinate and become suicidal," said Dr. Paul Ragan, associate professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University and a former military psychiatrist. "You have to look for some exogenous factor, some outside factor, something new in the mix that will change how they've otherwise been able to operate." ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[shadu]

1. O Brother!

[acmavm]

2. Didn't a lot of the military openly state they didn't want to have those

innoculations? Weren't they threatened with court martial?

They were right.

[RivetJoint]

4. It was anthrax and smallpox

innoculations they resisted.

[Beaverhausen]

3. Here is another story- I saw this on CNN today

but this is a story from May.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/05/19/lariam/index.html


Military's use of malaria drug in question

Pentagon studies Lariam's side effects after soldiers' suicides
From Maria Fleet and Jonathan Mann
CNN
Thursday, May 20, 2004 Posted: 12:27 PM EDT (1627 GMT)

U.S. troops have been issued the anti-malaria drug Lariam, which can have severe side effects.

(CNN) -- U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Bill Howell began taking Lariam before going to Iraq in 2003. In March, three weeks after returning home, Howell fatally shot himself in his front yard.

Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves also took the anti-malarial medication during his tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2002. Two days after coming home, he killed his wife and himself.

Although grieving families and some experts suspect a link between Lariam and the deaths, the Pentagon said it isn't sure. And until its conclusion of a study into the matter, the Defense Department said it intends to hand out the drug to U.S. military service personnel in some regions where malaria is a threat.

"The combination of the anecdotal reports and the perceptions have led me to conclude that we need to perform a study to ... see if there are the adverse outcomes that some believe there might be," said Dr. William Winkenwerder, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.

There is no timeline for the probe, Winkenwerder said, but he has requested its completion as soon as possible

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