View clinical trials related to Persian Gulf Syndrome.
Filter by:This is the follow-up to an observational epidemiological study of psychological and neuropsychological outcomes of deployed and non-deployed Gulf War-era veterans.
This trial is a study of Gulf War era veterans who have unexplained chronic medical symptoms such as pain, fatigue, and/or cognitive difficulties. The treatments to be studied, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and aerobic exercise, have been shown to be effective in alleviating symptoms in individuals with other similar types of illnesses, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. This is a Phase 3, 2X2 factorial designed study. All study participants are assigned to one of four treatment groups - CBT and aerobic exercise, aerobic exercise alone, CBT alone or usual and customary care. This study durations is 28 months; 1092 participants were enrolled and will be followed in clinic at 3, 6 and 12 months after enrollment.
In 1990 and 1991, the U.S. deployed approximately 700,000 troops to the Persian Gulf to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. While there were few casualties associated with the Gulf War, many individuals returned from this conflict with unexplained symptoms and illnesses. This constellation of symptoms has been termed Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (GWI). Although several explanations have been offered as to the cause of GWI, none of the putative etiologic agents or conditions is currently supported by sufficient evidence. One explanation that has received fairly widespread attention is systemic Mycoplasma fermentans infection. It is the purpose of this study to determine if antibiotic treatment directed against Mycoplasma species (i.e. doxycycline) will improve functioning and symptoms in deployed Gulf War veterans with GWI.
Significant subsets of military veterans have reported such health problems as headache, joint pain, fatigue, and memory/concentration difficulties subsequent to their participation in the Gulf War. However, the etiology remains controversial. A number of toxins have been implicated as etiologic factors for GW-related health problems; however, exposure levels have been difficult, if not impossible, to document retrospectively. These difficulties with exposure verification have led GW researchers to de-emphasize methods typical of neurotoxicological research examining exposure-symptom relationships and instead focus on epidemiological approaches emphasizing identification of coherent symptom patterns.