Small study indicates exposure to certain chemicals may be responsible for some cases of Gulf War syndrome in US veterans.

HealthDay (3/24, Preidt) reported that, according to a study published Mar. 31 in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, “exposure to certain chemicals during the 1991 Gulf War appears to have triggered abnormal responses in the brains of some US veterans.” For the study, researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas examined “21 chronically ill Gulf War veterans and 17 healthy veterans” who “were given small doses of physostigmine, a substance that briefly stimulates cholinergic receptors on brain cells.” Next, the team “used brain scans to observe levels of cell response in different areas of the brain.” They discovered that areas “in the basal ganglia, hippocampus, thalamus,” and amygdala “responded abnormally to the cholinergic challenge.” The study authors theorized that “changes in functioning of these brain structures” may “cause problems with concentration and memory, body pain, fatigue, abnormal emotional responses and personality changes” often seen “in ill Gulf War veterans.”