Imagine finding yourself in a busy train station in a foreign country with no idea of where you are, who you are, and how you got there. That is what happened to David Stuart MacLean when he was in India as a Fulbright scholar. A railroad police officer assumes MacLean is under the influence of drugs and takes him to a woman who counsels drug addicts. Eventually he lands in the hospital having a psychotic episode that lasted days until his parents traveled from Ohio to get him. The problem was found to be an anti-malarial drug called Lariam which, it turns out has a history of side effects causing psychosis, paranoia, suicidal and homicidal thoughts, all of which MacLean suffered from. Eventually he had somewhat of a recovery with occasional flashbacks. The experience impacted his confidence, his love life, and his outgoing, sometimes goofy, personality. The drug has been directly connected to mental problems and suicides of servicemen who were routinely given the drug when stationed in areas where malaria is prevalent. Because of my father's near fatal experience with a heart medication containing quinine, I was interested in the anti-malarial drug reaction story and had to read it. I downloaded the audiobook from Overdrive.
