2016/06/22 by Remington L. Nevin, Ashley M Croft · 1 citation
Medicine · Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics · Psychology · #Adverse effect #Cognition #Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies #Drug-Induced Hepatotoxicity and Protection #Immunology #Malaria #Malaria Research and Control #Medicine #Mood #Neurocognitive #Pharmacology #Psychiatry #Psychology #Public health
paper · pdf · doi:10.1186/s12936-016-1391-6
openalex publication_date 2016/06/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The modern medical literature implicates malaria, and particularly the potentially fatal form of cerebral malaria, with a risk of neurocognitive impairment. Yet historically, even milder forms of malaria were associated in the literature with a broad range of psychiatric effects, including disorders of personality, mood, memory, attention, thought, and behaviour. In this article, the history of psychiatric effects attributed to malaria and post-malaria syndromes is reviewed, and insights from the historical practice of malariotherapy in contributing to understanding of these effects are considered. This review concludes with a discussion of the potentially confounding role of the adverse effects of anti-malarial drugs, particularly of the quinoline class, in the unique attribution of certain psychiatric effects to malaria, and of the need for a critical reevaluation of the literature in light of emerging evidence of the chronic nature of these adverse drug effects.