Relationship of psychiatric status to Gulf War veterans' health problems

Objective: A growing body of research has shown that there are important li nks between certain psychiatric disorders and health symptom reporting. Two disorders in particular (posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major de pression) have been the most widely implicated to date, and this associatio n has sometimes been used to explain the occurrence of ill-defined medical problems and increased somatic symptoms in certain groups, most recently Gu lf War veterans. Methods: Structured psychiatric diagnostic interviews were used to examine the presence of major psychiatric (axis I) disorders and t heir relation to health symptom reporting in a well-characterized, stratifi ed subset of Gulf War veterans and a non-Gulf-deployed veteran comparison g roup, Results: Rates of most psychiatric disorders were substantially lower than national comorbidity estimates, consistent with prior studies showing heightened physical and emotional well-being among active-duty military pe rsonnel. Rates of PTSD and major depression, however, were significantly el evated relative to the veteran comparison group. The diagnosis of PTSD show ed a small but significant association with increased health symptom report s, However, nearly two-thirds of Gulf participants reporting moderate to hi gh health symptoms had no axis I psychiatric diagnosis. Conclusions: Result s suggest that rates of psychiatric illness were generally low with the exc eption of PTSD and major depression. Although PTSD was associated with high er rates of reported health problems, this disorder did not entirely accoun t for symptoms reported by participants. Factors other than psychiatric sta tus may play a role in Gulf War health problems.