FDA requires warnings on anti-malaria drug Lariam.(health)

It takes special vigilance to prevent serious harm from some medication side effects. In July, the Food and Drug Administration finally insisted that consumers be told about the serious psychiatric problems that occur in some of the 25 million people worldwide who have taken the prescription drug mefloquine (Lariam) to prevent malaria. Pharmacists are now required to dispense a 2,000-word medication guide detailing the warnings.

For a March 2002 article, CONSUMER REPORTS filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the FDA's adverse-events reports on mefloquine and reported on the hundreds of psychiatric side effects attributed to the drug. In addition, when some of our staff members were sent to fill mefloquine prescriptions at two independent pharmacies and at nine leading drugstore chains, some received drug handouts ...