许多英国老兵相信他们患有海湾战争综合征
NEW YORK, Aug 31 (Reuters Health) - Seventeen percent of British Gulf War veterans say they are suffering from Gulf War syndrome, the constellation of symptoms ranging from joint pain to chronic fatigue reported by some soldiers who served in the 1991 conflict.
In the study, Dr. Trudie Chalder and colleagues at King's College in London surveyed 2,961 British veterans who served in the Gulf War.
"In our sample of British war veterans, 17% believed they had Gulf War syndrome. If this sample is representative, about 9,000 of 53,000 British service personnel believe they have Gulf War syndrome," the researchers report.
Those who believed they were suffering from the condition reported poorer overall health, and the researchers found that this belief was held most strongly by veterans who knew others who thought they had the illness.
The findings are published in the September 1st issue of the British Medical Journal.
Gulf War syndrome is defined as an elevated level of symptoms in at least three of six defined symptom "domains," such as fatigue and sleep problems, pain and gastrointestinal symptoms. Gulf War syndrome is considered as a possible cause when the cluster of symptoms cannot be otherwise explained.
During and after the war, some Persian Gulf veterans began complaining of rashes, joint pain and a host of other symptoms. This led some to suggest the symptoms might constitute a syndrome, possibly caused by exposure to biological and chemical warfare agents or other toxins.
But a report released by the Ministry of Defense in June found that tests on a group of British Gulf War veterans failed to turn up any trace of Gulf War syndrome.
In that study of 1,000 veterans seen by the Ministry's medical assessment program between February 1997 and February 1998, only 20% were unwell, reporting psychiatric complaints and post-traumatic stress disorder.
They were the second group of British veterans of the 1991 conflict to have been tested by the Ministry.
But the National Gulf War Veterans and Families Association rejected the findings at the time they were published, saying "statistics are easily manipulated.", 百拇医药
In the study, Dr. Trudie Chalder and colleagues at King's College in London surveyed 2,961 British veterans who served in the Gulf War.
"In our sample of British war veterans, 17% believed they had Gulf War syndrome. If this sample is representative, about 9,000 of 53,000 British service personnel believe they have Gulf War syndrome," the researchers report.
Those who believed they were suffering from the condition reported poorer overall health, and the researchers found that this belief was held most strongly by veterans who knew others who thought they had the illness.
The findings are published in the September 1st issue of the British Medical Journal.
Gulf War syndrome is defined as an elevated level of symptoms in at least three of six defined symptom "domains," such as fatigue and sleep problems, pain and gastrointestinal symptoms. Gulf War syndrome is considered as a possible cause when the cluster of symptoms cannot be otherwise explained.
During and after the war, some Persian Gulf veterans began complaining of rashes, joint pain and a host of other symptoms. This led some to suggest the symptoms might constitute a syndrome, possibly caused by exposure to biological and chemical warfare agents or other toxins.
But a report released by the Ministry of Defense in June found that tests on a group of British Gulf War veterans failed to turn up any trace of Gulf War syndrome.
In that study of 1,000 veterans seen by the Ministry's medical assessment program between February 1997 and February 1998, only 20% were unwell, reporting psychiatric complaints and post-traumatic stress disorder.
They were the second group of British veterans of the 1991 conflict to have been tested by the Ministry.
But the National Gulf War Veterans and Families Association rejected the findings at the time they were published, saying "statistics are easily manipulated.", 百拇医药