Our group was formed largely to advocate for and to support and promote education and research on this medical condition, which we have termed “quinism”. We chose this language very deliberately. We believe that quinism is a disease, that chronic quinoline encephalopathy is a medical condition caused by the poisoning of the brain by these drugs.
The symptoms that I have been describing, the symptoms that are acknowledged as being potentially long term in individuals who take mefloquine, are not just side effects. These symptoms are not just adverse reactions to the drug. These symptoms and the signs that accompany them are manifestations of an underlying disease that has been caused by the poisoning of the central nervous system by these drugs.
There are many reasons why we believe that. The symptoms and signs clustered together, for example, are evidence of a disease. However, we have an increasing understanding with time of the pathophysiology, meaning the disorder in structure and function, of the central nervous system that underlies these signs and symptoms.
When you have a putative pathophysiology, when you think you understand how the body—or in this case, the brain—is being disordered and you have consistent signs and symptoms, you have a disease. It's not merely a syndrome. These aren't merely side effects. It's a disease.
The term “quinism”, the disease quinism, encompasses the entirety of the symptoms that are experienced by veterans suffering from mefloquine poisoning.