Panel Discounts Existence of Unique Gulf War Syndrome

An expert panel reviewing hundreds of studies has concluded that there is no single "Gulf War syndrome" afflicting thousands of veterans of the 1990-91 conflict, although they have suffered vague symptoms at a much higher rate than other veterans.

They have also experienced post-traumatic stress disorder and depression two to three times as frequently as other veterans, the panel found. Less certain is a possibly higher risk for the neurological ailment known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and possibly a rare birth defect in their children.

"We can't identify a Gulf War syndrome," said Lynn R. Goldman, a physician and epidemiologist who headed the 13-member committee appointed by the National Academies' Institute of Medicine (IOM).

Previous blue-ribbon panels, including several convened by the IOM, one by the Defense Department and one by the White House under Bill Clinton, reached the same conclusion.

In preparing the report, Goldman and her colleagues read 850 studies done in the years since soldiers in an Army Reserve unit in Indiana began reporting a constellation of symptoms that included fatigue, joint and muscle pains, difficulty concentrating and memory problems in the months after they returned from the Persian Gulf in 1991. The panel gave more credibility to large, well-designed and controlled studies; it did no original research of its own.

The largest and most representative study found that 29 percent of Gulf War veterans reported physical complaints arising from several body systems, compared with 16 percent of servicemen and women who were not sent to the gulf. This was not just an American phenomenon; British, Canadian, Australian and Danish troops deployed to the gulf also reported more symptoms than their non-deployed counterparts.

The panel concluded that "unexplained illnesses are the most prevalent health outcome of service in the Gulf War."

However, the array and severity of symptoms vary, and many are typical of other conditions (such as fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity and chronic fatigue syndrome) whose causes are unknown.

"The nature of the symptoms suffered by many Gulf War veterans does not point to an obvious diagnosis, etiology [cause], or standard treatment," the panel wrote.

Three studies examined by the panel found a slightly increased rate of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in Gulf War veterans. Overall, 107 cases of the fatal disease were found in about 700,000 men and women deployed. Goldman and her colleagues said this trend should be followed with continued surveillance for the disease.

Among the 850 papers examined were several with less certain findings.

One found a slight increase in brain cancer among the 100,000 troops theoretically exposed to sarin gas after rockets containing the nerve agent were unwittingly destroyed in a large ammunition dump in Khamisiyah, Iraq, after the war. That disease remained extremely rare, however, with only a handful of tumors even in the "exposed" group.