Under a directive from the Department of Veterans Affairs [VA], the Institute of Medicine [IOM] will convene a panel to determine what conditions constitute “Gulf War Illness.” Some Gulf War Veterans are concerned that the panel will be dismissive over some medical conditions while “lumping” other conditions together.
On Wednesday, the IOM panel will meet for the first time to begin the process of determining what conditions fall under “Gulf War Illness” and how to properly categorize the associated medical conditions. Supporters of Gulf War Veterans are concerned that the panel will find that the majority of medical conditions these veterans suffer from will be classified under a psychiatric condition stemming from post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] or traumatic brain injury. Further, veterans' communities are worried that the IOM panel will “lump” commonly described symptoms of Gulf War Illness under a catch-all category “chronic multi-symptom illness.”
According to Gulf War veteran supporters, the IOM's approach – and, by default, the VA's – is dismissive, and that there could be many different causes to Gulf War Syndrome that are beyond just PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. The concern is that by categorizing all symptoms of the condition into something brain-related will hurt the type of care sufferers' will receive as well as possibly taint future diagnoses.
Veterans suffering from symptoms generally attributed to Gulf War Illness may have also been exposed to environmental toxins and other biohazards including Sarin gas and asbestos. Exposure to these toxins have been linked to serious medical conditions including mesothelioma cancer and lung cancer, and can exacerbate other underlying medical conditions.
However, the VA is steadfast in their position that not all veterans afflicted with Gulf War illness symptoms suffered from brain trauma or injury. Though the VA has been accused of fixating on the psychiatric cause of Gulf War Illness in the past, the hope is that the IOM panel will thoroughly investigate all possible causes of Gulf War Syndrome and classify each independently.
The IOM is a non-for-profit part of the National Academies.
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