Gulf War Vets Still Struggle With Health Problems

They include chronic fatigue, distress, impaired physical functioning

THURSDAY, Dec. 11, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- Veterans of the first Gulf War are still reporting higher-than average rates of psychological and physical problems, a new British study finds.

The researchers compared 511 British veterans who served in the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991, with service personnel who performed United Nations peacekeeping duty in Bosnia from 1992-97 and others who were not deployed to the Gulf. The finding: Gulf War vets "continued to experience poorer health on all outcomes," say researchers at Guy's, King's and St. Thomas's School of Medicine in London.

Their study appears in the Dec. 13 issue of the British Medical Journal.

And it's likely there will be an Iraq war version of "Gulf War syndrome" because the problems afflicting the 1990-91 vets are typically experienced by anyone who goes to war, says Dr. Daniel Clauw, who wrote an accompanying editorial in the journal.

"The military is sensitive to this happening," says Clauw, who heads the University of Michigan's Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Program. His group has done extensive studies on Gulf War syndrome, and some of that research was financed by the federal government.

"A lot of surveillance and treatment and treatment programs have been set up, with the belief that if you identify people early and can make the proper adjustments, it will be a self-limiting problem rather than lifelong pain and fatigue," Clauw says.

Clauw acknowledges his point of view is controversial, because a number of reports have linked the problems of Gulf War veterans to factors specific to that war, such as the depleted uranium used in weapons.

"It is possible that a small number of cases are due to specific exposures" to toxic materials, he says. "But that is not true of the overwhelming majority of cases."

The new study provides some support for Clauw's view. The U.N. peacekeepers who served in Bosnia reported more problems than those who saw no action, but they were better off than Gulf War vets. But many of the Gulf War vets' symptoms have lessened with time.

Those symptoms include excessive fatigue, distress, impaired physical functioning and diminished perception of one's own well-being.

A second British study published in the same issue of the journal found no higher rates of cancer or deaths due to cancer among Gulf War participants, compared to veterans who were not deployed for the war.

The health problems striking Gulf War veterans are similar to those reported by veterans of earlier wars and even civilians who are under unusual stress, Clauw says. "Certain individuals who are exposed to a large number of stresses become sick," he says. "Some recover and some don't."

War-induced problems have been given different names in different conflicts, Clauw says. In World War I, it was called "shell shock"; in World War II it was "combat fatigue."

"It has taken a long time for military historians to go back and say, 'We've seen this before,'" he says.

If that history is a guide, more severe problems can be predicted for personnel now serving in Iraq, Clauw says. "The stress they are experiencing is much more vivid and much more personal than in the first Gulf war."

More information

For more on Gulf War syndrome, check with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Gulf War Veteran Resource Pages.

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