War ailments not unique, study says

Associated Press

LONDON — Veterans of most modern wars have suffered a host of unexplained physical and psychological symptoms, researchers reported Friday in a study suggesting that the unexplained ailments experienced by some Gulf War veterans are not unique.

The study reviewed the records of British soldiers who fought in late 19th-century imperial campaigns, the Boer War in South Africa, both world wars, the Korean War and the Gulf War. All reported problems that varied based on their combat experiences but had much in common, said the paper published Friday in the British Medical Journal.

"The thing we’re showing is that all major wars seem to produce post-combat syndromes," said researcher Edgar Jones, an expert on the history of medicine and psychiatry at the Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’s School of Medicine at the University of London. "War is harmful to your health."

Experts have failed to agree on what causes the chronic illnesses reported by veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, but one study suggested a link to vaccines soldiers received to ward off potential Iraqi chemical and biological attacks. Some veterans and researchers also blame nerve gas, pesticides or depleted uranium used in ammunition.

"I’d like to see Gulf War syndrome placed within a general context of post-combat syndrome," Jones said.

Shaun Rusling, chairman of the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, a British group, accused Jones and his colleagues — whose work was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense — of minimizing veterans’ suffering and trying to cover up the problem’s true causes.

"To compare our illness with that of the Boer War, that’s just farcical," he said.

The researchers grouped symptoms into three broad categories — weakness, mainly afflicting late 19th and early 20th century soldiers; physical ailments, especially heart problems, widely diagnosed in World War I vets; and neuropsychiatric problems reported along with some physical symptoms by World War II and Gulf War combatants.

Some symptoms overlapped categories, and soldiers from every conflict were found in each cluster, the researchers said.

"It may be inferred that the three syndromes are unrelated to any particular (toxin) exposure as they occurred during several wars," the paper said.