Study links Gulf War sickness to brain damage

SUZANNE GAMBOA / AP 28nov00

WASHINGTON - Memory problems, chronic fatigue and other mysterious ailments afflicting thousands of Gulf War veterans may be linked to chemical damage to parts of their brains, a team of Texas researchers has found.

For years, those who questioned the validity of so-called Gulf War Syndrome have wondered how people suffering the same illness could have such disparate symptoms. The findings by a team led by Dr. Robert Haley of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas could provide an answer.

The team did brain scans on 12 very sick and 18 healthy veterans and found the sick ones had damage to three areas of their brains.

The damage to the right-side basal ganglia appeared to cause memory lapses, impaired sense of direction, and depression, while damage to the left basal ganglia seemed to cause general confusion, including difficulties understanding instructions, reading, solving problems and making decisions, the researchers found. Damage to the brain stem accounts in part for vertigo attacks and loss of balance, the researchers said.

They said they believed the damage was caused by exposure to combinations of low-level nerve gas, anti-nerve gas tablets, pesticides and DEET-containing insect repellents. However, they acknowledged there was no conclusive link.

Defense Department officials had no immediate comment on the research, but the Pentagon had previously criticized Haley's research, saying the study was too small and has not been replicated.

"We're the first ones to point out that our study only concerns one battalion of troops," Haley said. "In this one battalion we think we've shown very strongly what the problem is. The big remaining question is, is it true of all sick Gulf War veterans?"

The Pentagon says an estimated 90,000 troops who served in the Gulf War complain of maladies including memory loss, anxiety, nausea, balance problems and chronic muscle and joint pain. But despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on scores of studies, officials say they've found no scientific explanation for the vets' illnesses.

The Institute of Medicine, which was asked by Congress to look into various studies of Gulf War illnesses, reported in September it could not find enough evidence to link the illnesses to any single cause.

Pentagon studies have looked into pesticides; stress; depleted uranium; the toxic nerve agent sarin; and vaccines the troops were given as possible contributors.

The Haley team's findings were presented to the 86th Scientific Assembly of the Radiological Society of North America that is meeting in Chicago this week.

Dr. James Fleckenstein, a radiologist and member of the research team, believes psychotropic drugs, such as anti-depressants, could be used to treat the veterans because the symptoms overlap with psychiatric illnesses. Anti-epileptic drugs or those used for Parkinson's disease also could work, he said.

Testing of treatments could begin immediately, but the researchers have run out of money, he said.

"We can't do any more at this point," Fleckenstein said.

Haley and his team, who have received about $2 million from Ross Perot, have asked Congress for $16 million to expand their research and attempt to replicate the findings.

• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas' Gulf War illness site: http://www.swmed.edu/home--pages/epidemi/gws/
• Defense Department's Gulf War illness site: http://www.gulflink.osd.mil