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This report summarizes the methodology of the DoD program
for medically evaluating Gulf War veterans and presents some of the findings
of the first 20,000 evaluations accomplished. The types of primary and
secondary diagnoses among the participants varied widely. The three most
common, broad categories of primary diagnoses were "diseases of the
musculoskeletal system", "mental disorders", and "symptoms,
signs, and ill-defined conditions", together accounting for 54.7%
of all participants. Eighty percent of participants reported not missing
any days of work during the 90 days prior to examination. No single illness
predominated and there was no indication of a new or unique syndrome.
The authors’ discussion covers the implications of the observations
and describes the limitations of the findings. The list of references
is an invaluable resource for further reading on illnesses among Gulf
War veterans and related topics. Limitations are: the CCEP was not a research
study; participants self-selected themselves for the evaluations; there
was no control group with which to compare illness rates; rare or minimally
pathogenic illnesses could have been missed; and, participants were mainly
active duty personnel, so an illness that predominated in former military
or members of the reserve component might have been overlooked. |
