Melfoquine (Anti-Malarial Medicine) Side-Effects

I’ve been experiencing a lot of changes lately, disturbances in normal behavior if you will. I couldn’t figure out if some of it was due to the anti-Malaria medicine I was taking, my pre-departure anxiety, or some other unknown cause… if not all of the above.

As I said in my last entry, the Melfoquine I’m taking only lists “may cause dizziness” as a side-effect. The travel clinic I visited where I was given all my pre-departure shots and prescribed this medicine told me that hallucinations may also occur.

Dizziness, check. Extremely gory dreams to the point that I don’t go back to bed if I wake up in the night, check. Hallucinations, not a check—unless if you consider the dreams a manifestation. The other night I had a dream that my mother’s face lit on fire and she lost an entire eye. Each night of this week, in fact, that same feeling of dread has woken me up multiple times a night. I can’t figure out if there is any longer actual content to my dreams, or just a feeling of dread. It is a possibly that I just dream the feeling of dread now.

I’ve also been extremely irritable lately. I got to work on Thursday for a double and practically blew up at the manager and hostess. Granted, yes, I racked up only but a few measly hours of sleep the night before (due to the disturbing dream content). And yes, it didn’t help that I saw a person get wheeled away on a stretcher from a major car accident while sitting at a stoplight on my way to work. And yes, it really didn’t start off my day well when the hostess sat my table before I even walked through the door. Nor did it help that I was the only person on with booths which of course caused me to get triple sat within the first four minutes through the door (and not even on the clock yet, mind you). However, it is usually not in my character to take out my frustration from my personal issues on those around me. The only other time that has ever happened to me that sticks out in my mind is when I was on birth control. Birth control made me so bipolar and sensitive that I felt like a completely different person.

Mostly because of these two changes (feeling of dread and moodiness)—changes that appeared immediately after I started taking Melfoquine—I did some research into other fun side-effects that I may or may not find knocking at my door unexpectedly. One mother noted that her son wept inconsolably, had suicidal thoughts, had three psychotic episodes, and remembered in gross detail every embarrassing moment that has ever happened to him. He, however, probably shouldn’t have been taking this particular type of anti-Malarial medicine to begin with due to his history with depression and psychological disorders (autism). Furthermore, a U.S. Rep (Edward M. Mezvinsky) has filed a lawsuit against those who prescribed him Melfoquine for failure to warn him of severe side-effects… this suit was filed after he attempted to use mefloquine-induced psychosis as a defense to fraud charges.

Melfoquine apparently is known as one of the most effective preventative medications against Malaria; however, many choose forgo it for cheaper (in quality) drugs to avoid the neuropsychiatric side-effects that I’ve mentioned in the anecdotes above. The article where I found this information specifically talks about how patient compliance with Melfoquine is pretty weak because of its side effects. I wonder if I’ll be one more for the books.