SynthesisTravel medicine and infectious disease
Deaths and parasuicides associated with mefloquine chemoprophylaxis: A systematic review.
Synthesis in Travel medicine and infectious disease. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of mefloquine dose on outcome of uncomplicated falciparum malaria treated with artesunate-mefloquine: a WWARN systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis.Malaria journal · 2026Pooled it
- Association Between Doxycycline Chemoprophylaxis and the Development of Gastrointestinal Conditions in Military Personnel: A Systematic Review.Military medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Mefloquine for preventing malaria during travel to endemic areas.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- The antimalarial drug mefloquine enhances TP53 premature termination codon readthrough by aminoglycoside G418.PloS one · 2019Article
- Associations between Use of Antimalarial Medications and Health among U.S. Veterans of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMefloquine is recommended in international health guidelines for preventing malaria in travellers. Reports of psychosis and suicide are often alluded to but are not clearly established.
methodsWe carried out a systematic review of the literature to identify and critically appraise any reported death or parasuicide associated with mefloquine prophylaxis. We developed a comprehensive search that included publications up to 11 July 2017. We included case studies but excluded newspaper reports. Two authors independently appraised each death or parasuicide against a standardised causality assessment tool. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42016041988).
resultsWe identified 527 articles that required full-text retrieval; of these 17 were unique publications that reported deaths or parasuicide. Eight unique publications had sufficient detail to be included in causality assessment. We identified 2 deaths with a probable association that appeared to be idiosyncratic drug reactions; we categorised the remaining 8 deaths as "unlikely" to be related to mefloquine, or "unclassifiable". There was one parasuicide with a possible causal association. There were 9 additional publications that searched spontaneous drug reporting databases; none provided sufficient detail to perform a causality assessment.
conclusionsOverall, the number of deaths that we could reliably attribute to the prophylactic use of mefloquine is very low.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.