Gulf War Syndrome: Causes and symptoms

There is much current debate over a possible causative agent for Gulf War syndrome other than the stress of warfare. Intensive efforts by the Veterans Administration and other public and private institutions have investigated a wide range of potential factors. These include chemical and biological weapons, the immunizations and preventive treatments used to protect against them, smoke from oil well fires, exposure to depleted uranium, and diseases endemic to the Arabian peninsula. So far investigators have not approached a consensus. In its final report released in December 2000, the Presidential Special Oversight Board for Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical and Biological Incidents cited combat stress as a possible causative factor, but called for further research. There is also a likelihood that U.S. and allied forces were exposed to low levels of sarin and/or cyclosarin (nerve gases) released during the destruction of Iraqi munitions at Kharnisiyah, Iraq, and that these chemicals might be linked to the syndrome. In July 1997, the VA informed approximately 100,000 U.S. servicemen of their possible exposure to the nerve agents.

In October 1999, the U.S. Pentagon released a report that hypothesized that an experimental drug known as pyriostigmine bromide (PB) might be linked to the physical symptoms manifested in Gulf War Syndrome. The experimental drug was given to U.S. and Canadian troops during the war to protect soldiers against the effects of the chemical nerve agent soman. It has also been suggested that botulinum toxoid and anthrax vaccinations administered to soldiers during the conflict may be responsible for some manifestations of the syndrome.

Some studies have shown that Gulf War veterans have a higher incidence of positive tests for Mycoplasma fermentans, a bacteria, in their bloodstream. However, other clinical studies have not found a link between the bacterial infection and Gulf War-related illnesses.

Statistical analysis tells us that the following symptoms are about twice as likely to appear in Gulf War veterans than in their non-combat peers: depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic fatigue, cognitive dysfunction (diminished ability to calculate, order thoughts, evaluate, learn, and remember), bronchitis, asthma, fibromyalgia, alcohol abuse, anxiety, and sexual discomfort. PTSD is the modern equivalent of shell shock (World War I) and battle fatigue (World War II). It encompasses most of the psychological symptoms of war veterans, including nightmares, panic at sudden loud noises, and inability to adjust to peacetime living. Chronic fatigue syndrome has a specific medical definition that attempts to separate common fatigue from a more disabling illness in hope of finding a specific cause. Fibromyalgia is another newly defined syndrome, and as such it has arbitrarily rigid defining characteristics. These include a certain duration of illness, a specified minimum number of joint and muscle pain located in designated areas of the body, sleep disturbances, and other associated symptoms and signs.

Researchers have identified three distinct syndromes and several variations in Gulf War veterans. Type one patients suffer primarily from impaired thinking. Type two patients have a greater degree of confusion and ataxia (loss of coordination). Type three patients were the most affected by joint pains, muscle pains, and extremity paresthesias (unnatural sensations like burning or tingling in the arms and legs). In each of the three types, researchers found different but measurable impairments on objective testing of neurological function. The business of the nervous system is much more complex and subtle than other body functions. Measuring it requires equally complex effort. The tests used in this study carefully measured and compared localized nerve performance at several different tasks against the same values in normal subjects. Brain wave response to noise and touch, eye muscle response to spinning, and caloric testing (stimulation of the ear with warm and cold water, which causes vertigo) were clearly different between the normal and the test subjects. The researchers concluded that there was "a generalized injury to the nervous system." Another research group concluded their study by stating that there was "a spectrum of neurologic injury involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems."

— Paula Anne Ford-Martin