Study links brain damage in Gulf War vets to nerve gas exposure

April 7, 2000
Web posted at: 2:51 PM EDT (1851 GMT)

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By TROY GOODMAN

DALLAS (AP) -- A small-scale study of Gulf War veterans who complained of dizziness shows some of them appear to have brain damage similar to that found in victims of the 1995 Tokyo subway nerve-gas attack.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center study of 43 people said the veterans' reactions on audiological tests were consistent with patients who have dysfunction deep in the inner ear and brain stem.

Dr. Peter Roland, who led the study, called the findings "subjective evidence" of brain stem damage that could point to a link between the Gulf War veterans' attacks of dizziness and exposure to toxic nerve agents.

Though this study did not produce actual photographic or chemical evidence of brain damage, researchers at UT Southwestern announced last year they had taken brain scans of the same Gulf War veterans that show brain damage possibly caused by toxic chemical exposure.

Subjects in the most recent study underwent a battery of tests -- designed to measure deep-seated brain responses -- that analyzed their eye movements and body sway to determine how often and why they felt dizzy.

"These tests have shown evidence of dysfunction in the deepest structure of the brain where the body controls balance," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Robert Haley, chief of epidemiology at UT Southwestern.

Haley said the brain damage was the same type of problem seen in victims of the 1995 sarin gas attack on a Tokyo subway. Some Japanese studies have shown subtle brain damage in some of those victims.

The subjects of the Texas study were 23 members of a Naval Mobile Construction Battalion, known as Seabees, who complained of dizziness and other symptoms, and 20 other military veterans who were not ill. Researchers were not told which subjects had reported feeling sick.

Among the veterans who said they felt sick, 16 reported they often felt dizzy and overcome by vertigo. All but one of the 16 had abnormal test results indicating symptoms of brain stem damage were present, Haley said.

A Pentagon statement issued Thursday in response to the study called the findings important but inconclusive. The Pentagon acknowledged that research had proven some Tokyo sarin attack victims suffered subtle brain damage, but said human and animal studies have yet to link Gulf War service with this level of neurological damage.

This latest study appeared in the March issue of the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.

Along with fatigue, memory loss and joint pain, loss of balance is among the unexplained symptoms of some Gulf War veterans.

Earlier research sponsored by the Pentagon has suggested the symptoms, including dizziness, were caused by psychological factors such as stress and anxiety.

"Our tests showed this dizziness is not caused by psychological factors, but more likely by physiological problems," Roland said. "In other words, these people are not faking it and they aren't stressed out."

Dr. Lloyd Minor of Johns Hopkins University, who was not involved in the study, said it was important in identifying that something was wrong with the inner ear and deep brain systems that control balance in the veterans.

But he said more research is needed to draw a direct link between possible chemical exposure and the subtle brain damage found in the research.

"Now we need to know why do they perform differently on these (balance) tests?" Minor said. "Do they perform differently because of some other factor, like impaired concentration, or was it really exposure?"

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery journal
National Gulf War Research Center
Department of Defense Office for Gulf War Illnesses
Department of Veterans Affairs

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