Anti-malaria drug linked to suicide
UK: Inquest hears how traveller had “haunted look” after taking Lariam
An inquest has heard how a student killed herself after taking anti-malaria drugs – and the victim’s parents have been told they may have a case for compensation from the manufacturer of the medicine.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, 22-year-old Cambridge student Vanessa Blunt turned from a bright and vivacious woman to one with a “haunted look in her eyes” after she took the drug Lariam during a trip to the Far East.
She wrote to her family telling them that just two doses of the drug had made her ill “like never before”, the inquest heard, and was indentified as a suicide risk soon after returning home. She killed herself with a dose of painkillers last August – the sixth time a Lariam user is known to have killed themselves.
While the manufacturer of the drug says there is no link between Lariam and suicide, the Government’s Medicine Control Agency says the drug was “suspected” in all six cases. The MCA estimates that between one in 10,000 and one in 20,000 people experiences psychiatric side-effects to Lariam.
A spokesman for Roche told the Daily Mail: “Lariam remains one of the drugs of choice for the prevention and treatment of malaria by leading public health authorities, including the World Health Organisation.” The coroner at the inquest recorded a verdict of suicide.
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