Psychiatric diagnoses in Gulf War veterans with fatiguing illness

The purpose of this study was to determine whether Gulf War Illness (GWI) c an be explained by the presence of psychiatric disorders as assessed by DSM -III-R, To reduce the heterogeneity amongst Persian Gulf War veterans with GWI (PGV-F), only those were studied who presented with severe fatigue as a major complaint and also fulfilled clinical case definitions for Chronic F atigue Syndrome, Idiopathic Chronic Fatigue, and/or Multiple Chemical Sensi tivity. A total of 95 Registry PGVs were examined; 53 presented with GWI an d 42 did not report any post-war health problems (PGV-H). All subjects were assessed for the presence of DSM-III-R Axis I psychiatric disorders. Compa red to PGV-Hs, 49% of PGV-Fs had similar post-war psychiatric profiles: eit her no, or only one, psychiatric disorder was diagnosed. Psychiatric profil es of the remaining 51% of PGV-Fs were significantly different from PGV-Hs in that most of these veterans suffered from multiple post-war psychiatric diagnoses. The presence of psychiatric disorders as assessed by DSM-III-R c riteria cannot explain symptoms of Gulf War Illness among all Persian Gulf veterans with severe fatiguing illness. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland L td. All rights reserved.