-Caveat Lector-
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20021108-023533-5686r
Army Fort Bragg study faces scrutiny
By Mark Benjamin and Dan Olmsted
>From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk
Published 11/8/2002 6:08 PM
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- An Army report released Thursday saying a controversial
malaria drug called Lariam
was an "unlikely" factor in a cluster of killings and suicides near Fort Bragg, N.C.,
this
summer has sparked claims the military is covering up problems with a drug it invented
and
licensed.
"Our military said there is no problem with (Lariam) because they developed it," said
Rep.
Bart Stupak, D-Mich. "The hardest thing to do is develop a drug and then admit there
is a
problem."
The Army report on the Fort Bragg killings and suicides cites marital problems,
increased
stress in a post Sept. 11 environment and "flawed" systems for helping troubled
soldiers
and their families as common threads in a string of five homicides near Fort Bragg in
a 43-
day period during June and July 2002. Three soldiers involved had been deployed to
Afghanistan. Two of those soldiers also committed suicide.
Soldiers and their families are afraid to report or seek help for problems because it
is a
"career ender," the report said.
But in one of the killings, friends and neighbors of the soldier charged with the
murder said
the Army is ignoring evidence the drug might have played a role. The Army said
Thursday it
did not contact those people out of concern about privacy and an ongoing criminal
prosecution.
In Afghanistan, where at least two of the soldiers in the Fort Bragg killings took
their Lariam
pills, a U.S. security expert said the Army is ignoring frightening side effects he
has seen
first hand.
"The Army does not want (the truth) released," said Tony Deibler, deputy director of
U.S.
embassy security in Kabul and a security expert for 26 years with the U.S. diplomatic
staff.
"If we (the government) admit this, we are opening ourselves up to a multi, multi,
multi-
billion dollar lawsuit. I love my country, but this is what drives that train."
Deibler said he has seen Lariam wreak havoc on soldiers for years, including one
Marine at
an embassy who hallucinated intruders attacking and shouted, "Get back, they're
coming!"
Deibler said Marines guarding the embassy in Kabul take doxycycline -- an alternative
to
Lariam -- because of concerns about the side effects.
"Lariam is a bad drug," said Deibler. "You take these guys at Fort Bragg. I will bet
you a
year's pay that these guys were taking it and when they got back, they wigged out."
The report says Lariam, known generically as mefloquine, "does not explain the
clustering"
of violence because the Army only has evidence that two of the soldiers took the drug
in
Afghanistan and no mental problems were on file for those soldiers.
The report does not rule out Lariam as a cause in those two cases, but does say Lariam
does not explain the strange cluster of violence over a short period of time.
"We are not in a position, nor did we have adequate information to say definitively
that the
possible ... side effects of Lariam played absolutely no role" in the deaths, said
Col. Dave
Orman, a psychiatry consultant to the Army Surgeon General, and a member of the review
team. "What we can say is that it does not explain the clustering of these cases in
that
period of time."
Lariam's label warns of psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, aggression,
tremors,
confusion, abnormal dreams and rare reports of suicide. It also says mental problems
can
last long after taking it. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research developed Lariam
in
the 1970s after troops in Vietnam contracted malaria despite taking chloroquine --
then the
standard preventive medication.
Friends of one of the soldiers said the report ignores mounting evidence that the drug
might
have played a role in some of the violence near Fort Bragg.
"No one talked to me from the Army at all," said Debbie Lown, an acquaintance of Master
Sergeant William Wright, the one soldier who took Lariam in Afghanistan who did not
commit suicide. Wright allegedly strangled his wife, Jennifer. Lown's husband, John,
is also
a former Special Forces soldier who said Lariam made him lose control of his anger.
The Lowns and other friends and neighbors have described Wright's delusions, paranoia
and tremors since he took Lariam in Afghanistan. Jennifer Wright's father, Archie
Watson,
has described Wright's sudden, uncharacteristic fits of rage after returning. There
was no
history of domestic violence in their marriage.
The Army cited privacy concerns and ongoing legal proceedings in a decision not to
interview friends, family or neighbors who think Lariam might have played a role.
Thursday's report from the Army is the second time in two months the military has
signaled
that Lariam does not cause significant problems. In September, the Pentagon responded
to
concern about the drug from House Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Rep. John
McHugh, R-N.Y. Side effects from Lariam "have been few in number and generally of low
severity," the Pentagon wrote.
But the letter to McHugh also notes that the military and Lariam's manufacturer,
Hoffmann-
La Roche, have funded key scientific studies on Lariam. "This fact suggests at least
the
possibility of either commercial or institutional bias in the reporting of results,"
it says.
An internal safety report from Roche, obtained by United Press International, shows
that
reports of violent behavior have been coming in to the drugmaker and the Food and Drug
Administration for nearly a decade. Roche said in a statement to UPI that there is "no
medical or scientific evidence" that the drug can cause violent or criminal behavior
and that
incidents cited in its safety reports are anecdotes, not evidence.
Roche's 1994 safety report cites a 26-year old American woman who experienced
"aggression, compulsion to ('stab') attack boyfriend and to use obscenities;" a man who
destroyed a hotel room and window while psychotic and in the grip of a paranoid "fear
of
Nazis" that led to him being imprisoned and hospitalized; and another case described
as,
"psychosis -- hospitalization required, endangering himself and others."
The 1994 Roche safety report includes a reference to a patient "in U.S.
military/Somalia"
who was hospitalized suffering from "psychosis, confusion, depression, fatigue,
hostility,
agitation" and paranoia.
UPI has interviewed a number of soldiers who say Lariam has given them long-term mental
problems since the U.S. military began widely using the drug on over 20,000 troops
deployed to Somalia in the early 1990s. U.S. Army officials told UPI they never saw
evidence of any problems with the drug there.
"There is so much darkness in your brain and so much violence. And you know what you
are capable of," said G. Mayes, a member of the Army reserves who was called up in
1993.
Mayes said that while she suffered no mental problems before then, the Lariam the Army
gave her brought on hallucinations, confusion, depression, paranoia, suicidal thoughts
and
even thoughts of homicide that she struggles with to this day.
"You know that no one around you is safe. You do whatever you can to maintain the
appearance of normalcy. It is all in your eyes and in your head. You know that if
somebody
pulls the right stunt, you are just going to snap their little neck and leave them
there."
Mayes said she once bought a bottle of sleeping pills with the intention of committing
suicide, primarily out of concern that she might kill someone else. "I decided to take
two
pills and think about it. I woke up the next day and put the pills away."
Other soldiers who took Lariam during Operation Enduring Freedom have described
potentially deadly consequences from taking it.
A 27-year old Air Force Staff Sgt. named Kevin based in Little Rock, Ark., says he was
suffering from tremors, delusions, hallucinations and black outs by the time he took
his fifth
Lariam pill in Pakistan during operations. That soldier, who wanted to go by his first
name
only and is on medical leave, said he struggles with frightening flashes of anger that
could
trigger the unthinkable.
"These guys who killed their wives and then themselves (near Fort Bragg). If they were
having a reaction to Lariam I can totally understand why they did it. The patience
level goes
way down. You feel confused, and the anger and frustration level goes way up," Kevin
said.
"The only reason I have not done anything to myself yet is because I think it is a
one-way
ticket to hell."
Another soldier was recently hospitalized with serious mental problems after taking
Lariam
in Afghanistan.
"He went, he did his fighting and now he is sick," said that soldier's mother,
requesting
anonymity because she said she fears retribution from the Army on her son. She said he
is
hallucinating and suffering from anxiety and depression and that she fears for his
life.
"He exhibits all of these side effects. He was a normal human being," she said. "I
want this
drug off the market ... They are not going to do this to my child."
Congressman Stupak is the third member of Congress to raise questions about Lariam. In
July, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., called for an independent medical investigation to
protect
the health of Peace Corps volunteers, who are routinely prescribed the drug. In May,
McHugh wrote to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, asking whether the drug's side
effects were causing troops mental problems. His committee continues to work on the
issue.
McHugh said about Thursday's report from the Army, "Regarding Lariam, while the Army
found it was unlikely to have spurred the violence at Fort Bragg, our committee will
focus
on the results of a scientific, peer review now under way at the Centers for Disease
Control."
A former FDA official said that if Lariam were at fault in killings, it should not be
on the
market.
"I do not know of any product that would be allowed to generate a psychosis that could
stimulate someone to commit murder and be an approved drug," said Gerald F. Meyer,
former deputy director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research who is not
familiar with Lariam but is an expert on drug safety. "I do not know of any, and I
cannot
imagine one."
-0-
Contributing: J.S. Newton in Afghanistan
Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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