VETERAN RESEARCH
Exploring the Possible Causes of Gulf War Syndrome
Gulf War Veterans experience a cluster of medically-unexplained, chronic symptoms. These include: fatigue, headaches, join pain, indigestion, insomnia, dizziness, respiratory disorders, and memory problems. The VA refers to this grouping of illnesses as chronic multi-symptom illness or undiagnosed illnesses.
Symptoms for Gulf War Veterans vary widely. Due to this reason, we prefer to not use the term "Gulf War Syndrome" when veterans report their issues to us.
Some of the most common debilitating symptoms in military personnel who served in the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War are headaches (HA), muscle pain, and joint pain.
Migraine-like HA and diffuse body pain were detected in 64% of Gulf War Veterans (GWV) diagnosed with Gulf War Illness (GWI).
Likewise, depression carried a high co-morbidity rate (50%) in patients with chronic pain, including GWV with GWI-related chronic HA and muscle/joint pain conditions (GWI-HAP).
GULF WAR ERA
Medically Unexplained Illnesses & Chronic Impairment
Unfortunately, conventional pharmacological treatments for GWI-related pain have not been shown to be effective, and drugs such as narcotics contain many long-term untoward psychosomatic and abusive side effects.
As a result, our study (rTMS in Alleviating Pain and Co-Morbid Symptoms in Gulf War Veterans Illness (GWVI) and Long Term Efficacy of Neuronavigation Guided rTMS in Alleviating Gulf War Illness Related Headaches and Pain Symptoms) assessed the effectiveness of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). rTMS is a non-invasive treatment option, used to alleviate headaches, muscle, and joint pain symptoms in GWI.
In this study, veterans received either the active rTMS treatment or the sham treatment. Within our protocol, the rTMS treatment stimulated the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortez (LCLPFC) or the left motor cortex (LMC).
Dr. Adamson showcases the neuronavigation device to offer precise and targeted rTMS treatment.
Learn more about the Adamson Lab Gulf War Study
Meet the Principal Investigator
Albert Y. Leung
Dr. Albert Y. Leung is Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain at the UC San Diego, School of Medicine. He is the founder of the Anesthesia Pain Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) treatment clinic. In recent years, he's completed several novel studies validating the efficacy and mechanisms of rTMS in alleviating mTBI-related headache and other service-related chronic pain conditions with correlated functional imaging studies. He is at the forefront of promoting TMS as a treatment for pain.