Army Reviews Controversial Drug After Afghan Massacre 195
Hugh Pickens writes "Time Magazine reports that after the massacre in which Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly killed 17 civilians in Afghanistan, the Pentagon has ordered an urgent review of the use of the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, also known as Lariam, known to have severe psychiatric side effects including psychotic behavior, paranoia and hallucinations. 'One obvious question to consider is whether he was on mefloquine (Lariam), an anti-malarial medication,' writes Elspeth Cameron Ritchie in Time. 'This medication has been increasingly associated with neuropsychiatric side effects, including depression, psychosis, and suicidal ideation.' The drug has been implicated in numerous suicides and homicides, including deaths in the U.S. military. For years the military used the weekly pill to help prevent malaria among deployed troops, however in 2009 the U.S. Army nearly dropped use of mefloquine entirely because of the dangers, using it only in limited circumstances, including sometimes in Afghanistan. Army and Pentagon officials would not say whether Bales took the drug, citing privacy rules. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Jonathan Woodson has ordered a new, urgent review to make sure that troops were not getting the drug inappropriately. 'Some deployed service members may be prescribed mefloquine (PDF) for malaria prophylaxis without appropriate documentation in their medical records and without proper screening for contraindications,' the order says. It notes that this review must include troops at 'deployed locations.'"
Re:I'm I in the wrong Blog? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Administration's Sweating Profusely (Score:5, Funny)
best option: everyone commits suicide and let the Earth return to its natural state... humans are an aberration...
You go first. I'll be right behind you.
Re:I'm I in the wrong Blog? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Administration's Sweating Profusely (Score:4, Funny)
best option: everyone commits suicide and let the Earth return to its natural state... humans are an aberration...
The natural state of Earth includes having energy flows forming meta-stable localized regions of decreased entropy with complexity increasing over time, in one of their final forms usually called humans.
Re:I'm I in the wrong Blog? (Score:5, Funny)
How are we supposed to be hunted down and killed by T-800s without chemistry and biology? Research into these fields is vital.
Oh, wait...
Re:I'm I in the wrong Blog? (Score:5, Funny)
What's that? Drugged out solders killing civilians? Yawn. Wake me when there's news about how Apple or Microsoft is bad and Linux is good.
I have it on good authority that researchers in the labs that developed this drug were using Windows on some of their computers!