Researchers find no signs of 'Iraq War Syndrome'

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters) British soldiers who served in Iraq are showing few signs of the 'Iraq War Syndrome' that troubled veterans of the Gulf War in the early 1990s, scientists said today.

They examined whether there had been an increase in ill health in soldiers returning from Iraq and compared the mental and physical health of forces who had been deployed and those who had not.

They found only slight increases in symptoms but reserve forces experienced more mental health problems than regular forces.

''Is there an Iraq War Syndrome? The answer is no, at least not yet but at the moment certainly not,'' Professor simon Wessely, of the King's Centre for Military Health Research at King's College London, told a news conference.

Veterans of the 1991 Gulf War complained of symptoms such as respiratory and digestive problems, nerve damage, fatigue, pain, numbness and memory and psychological problems.

The cause of the syndrome has been linked variously to the immunisations the veterans received, pesticides, smoke from burning oil wells, stress and organophosphates - chemicals that have been shown to affect the human nervous system.

''As we don't really know what the cause of Gulf War Syndrome was, we can't be absolutely certain why we have this different result,'' Wessely explained.

The use of depleted uranium and pesticides and stress were common to both conflicts so are more unlikely to be the cause of the ill health experienced by the Gulf veterans, according to Wessely who reported the findings in The Lancet medical journal.

But he said the combination of vaccines given to soldiers going to Iraq was different and there was more of a time lag between immunisations.

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