Gulf War syndrome not found
WASHINGTON – The unexplained symptoms that afflict thousands of Gulf War veterans don’t constitute a single illness, a federally funded study concludes.
Even though U.S. and foreign veterans of the 1991 war report more symptoms of illness than do soldiers who didn’t serve in the Persian Gulf, there is no such thing as Gulf War syndrome, according to the Veterans Affairs-sponsored report released Tuesday.
Nearly 30 percent of all those who served in the brief war have reported problems.
“There’s no unique pattern of symptoms. Every pattern identified in Gulf War veterans also seems to exist in other veterans, though it is important to note the symptom rate is higher, and it is a serious issue,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, of Johns Hopkins University, who headed the Institute of Medicine committee that prepared the report.
The report did find evidence of an elevated risk of the rare nerve disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, among Gulf War veterans. They also face an increased risk of anxiety disorders, depression and substance abuse, it said.
The VA contracted with the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences, to review scientific studies and probe the issue at the direction of Congress.
The VA will use Tuesday’s report to help determine whether Gulf War veterans are eligible for special disability benefits if they are found to suffer from illnesses that can be linked to their service.
Veterans can now claim those benefits only by making an undiagnosed illness claim, said Steve Robinson, a Gulf War Army veteran and government relations director for Veterans for America.
“They keep saying it over and over, every year. We know that – we know that there is no single thing that made veterans sick. We know this thing is likely a combination of various exposures,” Robinson said in pushing for new studies he hopes will find what ails tens of thousands of his fellow vets.
However, the report’s confirmation that Gulf War veterans are sicker may actually help them secure government benefits, said Shannon Middleton, assistant director of health policy for the American Legion.
A member of the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses, also chartered by Congress, called the report the “first step” in cataloging the studies done on veterans of the conflict.
“But the most prevalent problems in Gulf War veterans are the multisymptom illness/Gulf War syndrome-type problems that still affect a sizable proportion of those who served in the war. I am disappointed that the IOM report does little to analyze what these studies collectively tell us about the nature and causes of these conditions,” said Lea Steele, a Kansas State University epidemiologist who is the committee’s scientific director.