Behavior Therapy May Aid Gulf Vets
By LINDSEY TANNER
CHICAGO (AP) — Behavior therapy and exercise may provide some relief for veterans ailing from Gulf War illness, an unexplained set of symptoms that often includes fatigue, pain and memory loss, a government study found.
Although the benefits were modest, the results are the first evidence of potentially helpful treatment for the ailment, the researchers say.
In the study in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association, veterans who received 12 weeks of group therapy or regular aerobic exercise reported improvements in some symptoms – but neither treatment provided much pain relief.
The behavior therapy yielded improvements in physical function, which is what it was targeted to treat. Exercise mostly helped relieve fatigue, distress and mental functions.
“This is the first study which really has been able to demonstrate that there can be beneficial effects from” treatment for Gulf War illness, said Dr. Nelda Wray, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ chief research and development officer.
Tens of thousands of U.S. and allied veterans who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War returned home with a variety of unexplained symptoms collectively labeled Gulf War illness or syndrome.
The symptoms sometimes mimic other multi-symptom ailments including chronic fatigue syndrome, which have been shown to respond to both exercise and behavior therapy.
The new study, Wray said, should give Gulf War veterans hope “the VA now will be able to provide them with interventions which have the potential to make at least some of them feel better.”
The study involved 1,092 U.S. veterans, age 40 on average, at 20 sites nationwide between April 1999 and September 2001. About 15 percent were women.
Veterans received 12 weeks of treatment: behavior therapy, aerobic exercise such as walking or bicycling at least three or four times weekly, or both therapy and exercise. They were compared with a group of veterans with Gulf War symptoms who did not receive those treatments.
After 12 weeks, nearly 17 percent of vets in the therapy/exercise group reported significant improvement in symptoms, compared with 15 percent of those who only received therapy, 13 percent who only exercised and 9 percent who weren’t treated.
A year after the study began, nearly 12 percent of veterans in the exercise-only and untreated groups reported significant improvement. About 18 percent of those getting exercise and behavior therapy group or only therapy reported significant improvement.
The behavior therapy included group sessions that taught such skills as relaxation techniques and activity pacing to help vets avoid “overdoing it” on days they feel well, said Dr. Daniel Clauw, a principal investigator for the study and a VA faculty member in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Vets were encouraged to incorporate the techniques into daily activities after the study. The results are to be distributed to doctors nationwide who treat vets with Gulf War symptoms.
Dr. Matthew Hotopf of Kings College in London, who wrote an accompanying editorial in JAMA, called the study “a remarkable achievement” and said it was one of the largest trials of a psychotherapeutic intervention ever published.
—
On the Net:
Journal of the American Medical Association
More science, space, and technology from RedNova
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.