LONDON (Reuters) - Seventeen percent of British Gulf War veterans believe they are suffering from Gulf War Syndrome, a mysterious illness blamed for a range of symptoms linked to the 1991 conflict in Kuwait.(Read photo caption below)
If a survey of nearly 3,000 veterans, by researchers at Guy's, King's and St. Thomas's School of Medicine in London, is representative of the 53,000 British forces who served in the Gulf, about 9,000 men and women think they have the condition.
``Substantial numbers of British Gulf War veterans believe they have Gulf War Syndrome, which is associated with psychological distress, a high number of symptoms, and some reduction in activity levels,'' said Dr. Trudie Chalder, lead researcher of the study, published in the British Medical Journal.
Chalder and her colleagues found that veterans who thought they had the illness had poorer health and were distressed, tired and more likely to have suffered from post-traumatic stress than other veterans.
``It (the study) is in keeping with the other major epidemiological studies that have been performed in the U.S. in that they find there is a high incidence of reporting of these symptoms and conditions,'' Catherine Unwin, an epidemiologist who worked on the study, said in an interview.
Gulf War Syndrome includes a variety of symptoms such as respiratory and digestive problems, nerve damage, pain, numbness, tiredness and psychological difficulties.
SYNDROME HOTLY DEBATED
The jury is still out on the validity of Gulf War Syndrome, and its possible causes have been hotly debated. It has been linked variously to the inoculations the veterans received, pesticides they handled, smoke from oil-burning fires, stress and organophosphates -- chemicals that have been shown to affect the human nervous system.
Last month Britain's Ministry of Defense said tests on a group of British Gulf War veterans failed to turn up any trace of the syndrome.
Veterans' Minister Lewis Moonie said the lack of evidence was in line with previous research findings.
Unwin said the latest research neither supports nor refutes the results of the British tests.
In the study, the researchers said the strongest factor associated with the belief that a veteran had the syndrome was knowing another person who had the condition.
``Veterans who have symptoms believe they have Gulf War Syndrome because the most likely explanation for the symptoms stems from something they have in common -- their active service,'' Chalder said in the report.
Unwin added that the psychological aspect is part of the main jigsaw of the possible causes of Gulf War Syndrome.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Some research says vaccines may cause "Gulf War Syndrome" Nearly one in five veterans believe they have Gulf War syndrome, research has found.A team from the Gulf War Research Unit at King's College London sent questionnaires to a large random sample of British service personnel who served in the 1991 Gulf War.
Of 2,961 respondents, 17% believed they had Gulf War syndrome.