WASHINGTON -- A federal panel that has spent two years reviewing studies of Gulf War illnesses recommends focusing future research on the effects of the toxic substances that veterans encountered during the 1991 conflict.
That conclusion differs from the findings of a Clinton administration panel that determined that stress was the cause of the mysterious ailments afflicting thousands of Gulf War veterans.
The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness said scientists are closing in on a treatment but need more government help. The committee suggested spending $60 million over the next four years to monitor and research the health of veterans and their children.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report yesterday, in advance of its expected release today by Anthony J. Principi, secretary of veterans affairs.
The review committee that Principi formed concluded that ''the goal of understanding and treating Gulf War veterans' illnesses is within reach" because of recent research breakthroughs. But federal research is falling short, in large part because studies have not asked important questions and continue to focus on stress to explain the veterans' problems.
''Additional progress in addressing Gulf War veterans' illnesses is not likely to come from a haphazard mix of studies," the panel said.
Department officials declined to comment before the review was made public.
Hundreds of thousands of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War have experienced undiagnosed illnesses they believe are linked to the war, according to the auditing arm of Congress. These ailments include chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, diarrhea, migraines, dizziness, memory problems, and loss of balance.
Principi's panel found that more recent studies suggest the veterans' illnesses are neurological and apparently are linked to exposure to neurotoxins, such as the nerve gas sarin, pyridostigmine bromide, an antinerve-gas drug; and pesticides that affect the nervous system.
''Research studies conducted since the war have consistently indicated that psychiatric illness, combat experience, or other deployment-related stressors do not explain Gulf War veterans' illnesses in the large majority of ill veterans," the review committee said.
The Pentagon has estimated that about 100,000 soldiers were exposed to nerve gas when Iraqi weapons caches were destroyed, though congressional auditors have questioned the Defense Department's estimates.
The committee said the VA should allocate $15 million in each of the next four years for a program to research illness related to the Gulf War. Principi had announced in 2002 that $20 million would be available for research this year. But the panel found that little of that had been spent and some went to studies investigating stress-related causes.
Research ''makes it a very reasonable possibility that this Gulf War illness
is not attributable simply to stress of troops that were deployed," said
Paul Greengard, who won the Nobel Prize for studying Parkinson's disease,
a nerve disorder. 