Neuroepidemiology

Since 1994, the Division has been performing research on the nature, causes and pathophysiologic mechanisms of Gulf War syndrome, a neurologic condition that affects tens of thousands of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. 

This research has led to a quantitative description and definition of a new illness, epidemiologic links with low-level sarin nerve agent and other neurotoxic environmental exposures in the war, definition of a genetic predisposition from deficiency of paraoxonase 1 (PON1) isoenzymes in the blood, and demonstration of brain cell damage and functional abnormalities in deep brain structures underlying the symptoms.

In response to concerns of an excess incidence of ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, by Gulf War veterans who developed the disease, the Division performed an epidemiologic investigation, concluding that the number of ALS cases in young Gulf War veterans has exceeded the expected number, indicating a likely causal link with environmental exposures in the war. A subsequent epidemiologic study by the Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed the finding. These advances led to official service-connection of ALS by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

To further research on brain involvement in Gulf War-related illnesses and related conditions, the Division has established a Neuroimaging Research Laboratory, a Biochemical Epidemiology Laboratory, and a Neurophysiology Laboratory, and has conducted a nationwide survey of Gulf War-era veterans with a follow-up neuroimaging and biomarker study.  The Division has also organized and sponsored basic neuroscience studies of the effects of pesticides similar to nerve agents on brain cells.

Dr. Haley served on the VA Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses, which advises the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on directions for research on this problem.