ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601110039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Pentagon should pay more attention to the psychological impact of the Gulf War experience in analyzing the illnesses of those who served in the 1991 conflict, medical experts said Thursday.
The Institute of Medicine, in a report requested by the Department of Defense, also added a note of caution to the Pentagon's conclusion that there is no clinical evidence of a new, mystery illness afflicting Gulf War vets.
The Pentagon study of sick veterans may not be adequate to detect milder, unknown illnesses affecting a smaller number of people, it said.
The Pentagon in June 1994 initiated the Comprehensive Clinical Evaluation Program, which has examined more than 10,000 Gulf veterans. It turned up instances of back pain, headache, alcoholism, depression and other ailments, but concluded last August that there was no such thing as a unique and previously unknown ``Persian Gulf Syndrome.''
It found that all but 11 percent of those examined could be diagnosed with some sort of disease or symptom.
The medical experts praised the Pentagon program as a ``compassionate and comprehensive effort to address the clinical needs of thousands of active-duty personnel.''
But the report noted that 37 percent of the patients in the program were diagnosed with a psychiatric condition such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
It encouraged the Pentagon ``to emphasize in its future reports that psychosocial stressors can produce physical and psychological effects that are as real and potentially devastating as physical, chemical or biological stressors.''
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