Brain Changes in Gulf War Syndrome

Data
presented at a Neurology conference shows structural changes in the
brain of Gulf War vets who are highly symptomatic of href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War_Syndrome" rel="tag">Gulf
War Syndrome.
 



It appears that the findings have not yet been published; in fact, the
study has not been completed.  So it is early to draw firm
conclusions. They've done MRIs on 36 persons; 18 with a high level of
symptoms, 18 with milder symptoms.  The findings were
presented at the 59th annual meeting of the American Academy of
Neurology.  The  study is being done at Boston
University and the Boston VA Medical Center by Roberta White, PhD, and
Ronald Killiany, PhD.  



The news report
is at Medscape (free registration required.)



There is one thing in the report that I do not agree with.

"We've
shown there are differences in MRI findings between high- and
low-symptom Gulf War veterans. In recent times, the Institute of
Medicine and other groups have come out more or less attributing these
symptoms to psychiatric conditions and implying there was no physical
basis for them, but we've shown this is not the case," Dr. White told
Medscape.



Study coauthor Dr. Ronald Killiany, PhD, from Boston University School
of Medicine, told Medscape that these data are an "important first step
for Gulf War veterans as well as the scientific community in validating
the fact that so-called 'soft' neurological conditions can have a
pathological basis."

The presence or absence of structural brain changes says nothing about
whether the condition is a psychiatric one.  Plus, I don't
think anyone ever had any reason to doubt that there was a pathological
basis for soft neurological conditions.  Of course there is a
pathological basis.