View clinical trials related to Gulf War Syndrome.
Filter by:The goal of this study is to investigate long-term modulation of pain pathways leading to a suppression of pain symptoms in Gulf War Illness patients by applying transcranial direct current stimulation.
The objective of the proposed research is to examine whether dietary exposure to food additives containing glutamate may be contributing to symptoms in Gulf War Illness (GWI). The rationale for proposed study comes from data in the fibromyalgia field which suggests that reducing the consumption of dietary glutamate can reduce over-excitation in the nervous system, leading to symptom improvement. In prior research, a low-glutamate diet (restricting food additive consumption) was tested in fibromyalgia patients. After one-month on the diet, 84% of patients had >30% of their symptoms go away (with 11 symptoms remitting on average), and 8 subjects had complete remission of all symptoms. Subjects then had a significant return of symptoms upon challenge with monosodium glutamate (MSG) as compared to placebo. Since there is almost complete symptom overlap between fibromyalgia and GWI, it is of utmost importance to test this diet as a low-cost treatment option in GWI patients. The findings from this research will ultimately be applicable to all GWI patients and potentially to other veterans with a similar symptom profile as well. The ultimate impact of this research could be quite profound, as it has the potential to impact all of the symptoms of GWI, as opposed to being a proposed treatment for only one of the symptoms. This dietary treatment has been shown to dramatically affect symptoms like fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, and pain; and thus, has the potential to dramatically improve quality of life for these individuals. Potential benefits of the treatment are great, and risks are minimal, as the treatment involves shifting the diet to a healthier, whole-food approach. First, the study will confirm or negate the idea that abnormal glutamate signaling in the nervous system could be causing symptoms in GWI. Second, if found to be successful, then this will provide a low-cost, easy-to-implement treatment option for the many veterans suffering from this multi-symptom illness. Third, this research could lead to future studies to identify potential causes of this abnormal neurotransmission, to help prevent future illness onset.
This study aims to assess the effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) on Gulf War illness related headaches and pain.
The investigator proposes to perform a phase I/II study comparing two nutraceuticals and placebo that target mediators identified in the investigator's prior dynamic modeling study of Gulf War Illness (GWI). The investigator will repeat the dynamic modeling before treatment and on therapy to assess the modeling and the impact of the interventions on the homeostatic networks that have identified, with an added focus on the glutathione/redox system.
The purpose of this study is to develop preliminary evidence, such as effect size and variance estimates, to guide successful conduct of a properly-powered clinical trial to assess the benefit of a mitochondrial cocktail (incorporating individualization of treatment) in Gulf War illness (GWI).
The purpose of the study is to investigate possible causes for Gulf War Syndrome. Gulf War Syndrome is associated with increased incidences of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease), pain syndromes, muscle complaints that include fatigue and myalgias (muscle pain), as well as other neurological symptoms. Abnormalities in the part of the cell known as mitochondria have been delineated in Gulf War Syndrome. Mitochondria are the "power plants" of the body. Mitochondria take the food you eat and break the food down into a form of energy that the body can use. The investigators propose that Gulf War Syndrome is determined by a complex interaction of factors that interfere with mitochondrial function. This study will be the first investigation of mitochondrial function in Gulf War Syndrome. The investigators objective is to establish the cause for symptoms in affected veterans, develop testing that can more easily identify Gulf War Syndrome, and ultimately develop treatment protocols for Gulf War Syndrome.
The adverse impact of Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) on the health of veterans and on the resources of the VA Healthcare System underscores the need to resolve its underlying cause. In response, the investigators propose to investigate the central hypothesis that gut bacteria may be responsible for symptoms associated with GWS. The investigators will enroll a total of 120 patients with GWS and 90 healthy controls.
Effective treatments have been developed to ameliorate symptom-related distress and reduce unnecessary healthcare utilization using cognitive-behavioral techniques (CBT) . However there is a major limitation of this treatment is that patients must attend sessions in person. The specific aims of the study are to: (1) Determine the clinical efficacy of Telephone CBT for veterans with GWI who are frequent consumers of ambulatory medical care; (2) Determine whether CBT for veterans with GWI leads to a reduction in the cost of VA health care; and (3) Develop a statistical model of treatment seeking in veterans with GWI who are frequent consumers of ambulatory medical care.
This research project is a follow-up to the prior VA-funded study that found that chronic fatigue reported by many Gulf War veterans may be a symptom of dysfunctional cardiovascular stress response regulation. Specifically, ill veterans had diminished autonomic responses during demanding psychosocial tasks involving high level cognitive processing and emotional stress. There was a close relationship between clinical status of ill veterans and their inability to mount an appropriate physiological response under stress. The main objective of the present investigation is to determine the specific mechanism through which this abnormality may contribute to Gulf War-related chronic fatigue. We also observed that Gulf veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) had the most dampened autonomic activation to stressors involving higher brain activities. The second major focus of this study is to explore the role of a psychiatric disorder, specifically PTSD, as a factor in abnormalities in stress response regulation. This aspect of the study may also provide pertinent information as to the role of stress of military deployment as a contributing factor in post-Gulf War illnesses.
This is the follow-up to an observational epidemiological study of psychological and neuropsychological outcomes of deployed and non-deployed Gulf War-era veterans.