Quote:

"After hearing sdo many stories about Lariam's side effects, I was overjoyed to learn there's a better alternative."

OK so you want to hear my story too? I'm still here to tell the tale, so it's not that bad, but maybe a little long :-)

I can vouch for the effectiveness of Mefloquine (Lariam), but IMHO there's a strange but legitimate balance allowed whereby this effective drug is licensed for general use - because it's side effects *can* be minor compared to the effects of malaria.

Now here's the rub, given controlled clinical conditions the side effects are minor, but in the real world malaria generally occurs in hot places where dehydration can be common and coupled with mefloquine can become a big problem. I have not met anyone that has taken it that has not mentioned some form of side effect, so it does surprise me that the official figure for side effects is something like 1 in 50 users.

My experience and my advice is to happily take mefloquine, it works. However read and remember the instruction to take plenty of water with the tablet. IMO this instruction doesn't go far enough - drink more water than you need all day and stay super hydrated or you will really f**k yourself up like I did.

I had a mefloquine induced mental breakdown on an Air France flight back from Dakar. I was dehydrated. When we took off I fell asleep, then after a while I was woken by someone screaming - it took a few minutes for me to realise that it was myself screaming, I had an overwhelming paranoid terror that I couldn't avoid. I tried to get off the plane at 35,000 ft and had to be restrained and sedated.

Now I said 'overwhelming paranoid terror' but really I can't think of any words appropriatly strong to describe how completly intense and bad my feelings /state of mind was. I basically needed to be put out of my misery and can understand entirely how people could take their own lives if they attain this mental state. I honestly now watch veterinary programs on TV where they put animals down because they are suffering and am astonished that they think the animal needs to die because of a little pain. I know that sounds bad, but it's honestly how I feel now.

I remember describing my feelings as a black cloud of death in my head, which after about 10 hours I was able to escape briefly if I concentrated very hard, but it soon pushed back into my active consciousness. By this time I was incredibly mentally exhausted. My female companion was extremely worried for me.

I slept for 24 hours when I got home, then could only manage 2 hours awake before sleeping again. Within a few weeks the black cloud of death was still in my head but not enveloping my consciousness unless I looked into it, plus I was only sleeping 14 hrs or so a night - so I managed to go back to work, but was in danger of crashing my car as I needed to learn to operate in real time again - I could get very easily distracted and forget that I was driving, once I remember wondering what was causing a bumping noise - I looked out the windscreen and saw the car was driving along the foot-path on the wrong side of the road in a residential area. I had read something on a parked vehicle which had distracted me & terminated any control or perception I had of driving a car. Luckily where the house drives were made the bumping sound which 'woke' me and there was no other obstacles or traffic on the road at the time. For the first few weeks I felt much better each day, then I could notice an improvement every week & after about 3 months I thought I was better. So I got back on my motorbike & rode the 50 miles to work. It was absolutely terrifying, I could only do one thing well at once and only if I concentrated on it. I knew what to do, but could only do one thing at once & could have easily accidentally killed myself in the traffic. Finaly after about 6 months I managed to ride fairly safely, but could still notice a vast improvement in my riding every week.

Now I don't know where to end my tale, I could be better, I don't really know. I can't say if my moods have changed or whether I'm as sane, effective or intelligent as before. I have not noticed any improvements for a while, I guess that's a good sign.