TY - JOUR AU - Nevin, Remington L. AU - Croft, Ashley M. PY - 2016 DA - 2016/06/22 TI - Psychiatric effects of malaria and anti-malarial drugs: historical and modern perspectives JO - Malaria Journal SP - 332 VL - 15 IS - 1 AB - 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. SN - 1475-2875 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1391-6 DO - 10.1186/s12936-016-1391-6 ID - Nevin2016 ER -