Brain changes seen in some Gulf War vets

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Veterans of the first Gulf War who complain of multiple neurological and psychological symptoms show significant differences in brain structures from their fellow Gulf War veterans without numerous symptoms, according to research presented at the American Academy of Neurology underway in Boston.

"We don't know the cause of these differences...but the hypothesis is that they are related to exposure to hazardous substances during the first Gulf War," Dr. Roberta White of Boston University School of Public Health noted in a written statement.

Moreover, the research shows that structural brain differences correlate with poorer performance on neuropsychological tests.

This is "important," White said, noting that the Institute of Medicine and other groups have "come out more or less stating that Gulf War veterans have psychiatric disease or they are imagining what's wrong with them and that there is no physical basis for the kinds of symptoms they complain about since the war."

"It took 20 years to figure out the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam; so we are 16 years after the Gulf War and we are finally starting to see what's happening to the health and central nervous system function of these veterans," she concluded.

The study involved 36 "healthy" veterans of the first Gulf War (1990-1991). Half of the veterans had more than five symptoms, such as joint pain, fatigue, forgetfulness, headaches, skin rash, nausea and difficulty concentrating. The other half had five or fewer symptoms.

The researchers found that two areas of the brain involved in thinking and memory were significantly smaller in the vets with a high number of symptoms than in the vets with fewer symptoms.

The so-called "rostral anterior cingulate gyrus" was 6 percent smaller and the overall cortex was 5 percent smaller in vets with more symptoms.