Gulf War Syndrome

Abstract

Our purpose was to explore whether patients complaining of the War Syndrome might have hidden sleep disorders, or psychiatric disorders, similar to what has been described in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. Eight consecutive Gulf War veterans from the VA Gulf War Registry and Evaluation program complaining of fatigue, as well as other symptoms, were psychiatrically and polysomnographically screened. One was found to have major depression and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), while another had PTSD alone. The sleep diagnoses assigned to the 8 patients were as follows: Three had sleep apnea syndrome, one of whom also had periodic limb movements of sleep disorder. Four others met criteria for periodic limb movements (PLMs) of sleep disorder. Four of the patients had clinically significant sleep state-misperceptions. All of the patients' symptoms were reported as occurring subsequent to Gulf War deployment, and not prior to deployment. As with the classic fatigue syndromes...