VA steps up efforts on Gulf War Syndrome

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A U.S. Marine patrol walked across the charred landscape near a burning oil well during perimeter patrol near Kuwait City at the end of the Persian Gulf War.


VA steps up efforts on Gulf War Syndrome
By Leo Shane III
Published: July 22, 2010

The Department of Veterans Affairs late yesterday approved $2.8 million in new research spending to fund three separate projects designed to find new treatments for "illnesses affecting veterans who served in the Gulf War 1990-1991.

The move comes at the urging of the department’s own Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses Task Force, which 20 years after the war is still looking for answers to the mysterious Gulf War Syndrome which has affected tens of thousands of veterans from that war. About 697,000 troops served in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, more than a third suffer from a collection of chronic symptoms such as fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, cognitive dysfunction, persistent headaches, and respiratory conditions.

In recent months the VA has promised new research and benefits for troops exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Agent Orange in Vietnam; This week's Gulf War Syndrome announcement echoes those efforts, and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's vows not to leave and servicemembers behind.

The studies are expected to take between two to five years to complete. The first is a five-year project to evaluate chronic musculoskeletal pain and associated symptoms in Gulf War Veterans. Another is a four-year study to assess the effectiveness of therapies to enhance mood and memory.

The final study, a two-year pilot, will include eight-week trials of an intervention known as “mindfulness-based stress reduction,” which will measure pain, fatigue, and cognitive and functions of selected veterans.