Gulf War Syndrome may really be in their heads.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130320212812.htm

Mar. 20, 2013 — Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) have found what they say is evidence that veterans who suffer from "Gulf War Illness" have physical changes in their brains not seen in unaffected individuals. Brain scans of 31 veterans with the illness, compared to 20 control subjects, revealed anomalies in the bundles of nerve fibers that connect brain areas involved in the processing and perception of pain and fatigue.

The discovery, published online March 20 in PLOS ONE, could provide insight into the mysterious medical symptoms reported by more than one-fourth of the 697,000 veterans deployed to the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War, the researchers say. These symptoms, termed Gulf War Illness, range from mild to debilitating and can include widespread pain, fatigue, and headache, as well as cognitive and gastrointestinal dysfunctions.

Although these veterans were exposed to nerve agents, pesticides and herbicides, among other toxic chemicals, no one has definitively linked any single exposure or underlying mechanism to Gulf War Illness according to the scientists.

This is the first study to show veterans, compared to unaffected subjects, have significant axonal damage. Bundles of axons, which form the brain white matter, are akin to telephone wires that carry nerve impulses between different parts of the gray matter in the brain. The researchers found that damage to the right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus was significantly correlated with the severity of pain, fatigue, and tenderness.

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