Studies of gulf war ills to put focus on toxins

By Suzanne Gamboa
Associated Press
Published November 13, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The Veterans Affairs Department said Friday it no longer will pay for studies that seek to show stress is the primary cause of mysterious ailments afflicting thousands of veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

For years the federal government has pointed to stress as the likely reason for the sicknesses. But Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi said Veterans Affairs will set aside up to $15 million for a year of gulf war illness research and none of the money will go for studies that propose stress as the only explanation for the ailments.

"We are going to look at other possible theories as to what may be causing these undiagnosed symptoms," Principi said.

His decision comes as a result of a report Friday by a panel Principi appointed.

The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness spent two years reviewing recent studies and recommended the VA abandon stress studies and focus on toxic substances veterans encountered during the war.

"We must embrace the possibility that unconventional theories, given the time and resources to test them, may lead the way to resolving and understanding the unforeseen and unsupposed battlefield conditions that existed in 1990, 1991 and which may have tunneled silently into the bodies of gulf war veterans," he said.

Many thousands of gulf war veterans have experienced undiagnosed illnesses with symptoms such as chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, diarrhea, migraines, dizziness, memory problems and loss of balance.

For years the government denied the mysterious illnesses were linked to the war. After the Pentagon acknowledged at least some of the sicknesses resulted from wartime service, a federal panel was appointed to look into the cause. It concluded in 1996 that combat-related stress was the most likely source, although it recommended pursuing other possible reasons.

In 1998, Congress required VA to create a gulf war illness research panel, but that did not happen until Principi appointed the panel in January 2002.

Principi's panel found that more recent studies suggest the veterans' illnesses are neurological, apparently linked to exposure to toxins such as the nerve gas sarin, the anti-nerve gas drug pyridostigmine bromide and pesticides military personnel encountered during the war.

Dr. Lea Steele, one of the panel members, said the studies indicate the exposure has caused brain injury in some veterans and affected their autonomic nervous system, responsible for automatic body functions such as breathing and sleeping.

Stephan Fihn, the VA's acting chief research and development officer, said the VA won't narrow research to only investigations of the effects of toxins.

"We view it as still a controversial and unsettled issue," he said, adding: "This is a detective story. There are no definite causes identified. We are turning to the scientific community and saying basically this is still an open question."

In addition, Principi said he is creating a Center for the Study of Gulf War Illnesses Treatment "to help us investigate the little-understood avenues of medical science that may one day lead to a breakthrough in our ability to treat gulf war veterans."

The $15 million is VA's single largest allocation of research money for a specific area and amounts to a fifth of all new research grant awards for this fiscal year, he said.

Steve Smithson, the American Legion's assistant director for veterans affairs and rehabilitation and a member of the committee, said the VA shift is a victory for gulf war veterans.

"Progress has been slow in coming," Smithson said.