Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigat

Persian Gulf War Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigat

This hearing, which marks the 25th anniversary of the Persian Gulf War, will examine VA's treatment and current health outcomes of veterans suffering from Gulf War illness. The Persian Gulf War was a conflict of swift intensity and short duration with what could be the lowest incident of post-traumatic stress disorder of any American war, according VA's own National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Nearly 30 percent of Gulf War veterans suffer from Gulf War illness. These veterans still struggle to receive accurate diagnoses for their symptoms and access to needed health care. For too many years, veterans suffering from Gulf War illness have been told: It's all in your head. The VA has previously testified that Gulf War illness is not a mental malady. And its own training course states that it, "cannot be ascribed to any known psychiatric disorder, somatoform disorder, PTSD, or depression." Even so, VA continues to treat veterans as if Gulf War illness was a psychiatric problem. Cardiovascular disease, the physical scarring of lungs, central sleep apnea, head trauma, cataracts, and a variety of cancers are not the manifestation of psychosomatic or psychiatric issues. Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are also coming to VA hospitals in need of treatment for their symptoms, sometimes symptoms that are similar to those suffered by Gulf War veterans. It is vital that the research continues in order to understand the best treatments and to explore issues relating to causation in order to protect the health of servicemembers going forward.