Published 13 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4167
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4167

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Mefloquine has more adverse effects than other drugs for malaria prophylaxis

Lynn Eaton

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Researchers for the Cochrane Collaboration have found that mefloquine (Lariam) has more adverse effects than the two main alternatives for antimalaria prophylaxis.

They looked at prophylactic regimens for visitors to countries where Plasmodium falciparum has developed resistance to chloroquine (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009;(4):CD006491, doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006491.pub2). Their review looked at the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of three regimens: atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone), doxycycline, and mefloquine.

On safety, the authors said that the main problem area related to the neuropsychiatric adverse events associated with mefloquine. Because randomised controlled trials lacked adequate details on safety, the authors examined case reports of deaths attributed to any of the study drugs at normal dosages. They found 22 published case reports of deaths associated with the use of mefloquine, including five reported suicides, and no case reports of deaths attributed to any of the other drugs.

As there had been a great deal of . . . [Full text of this article]


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