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Gulf War and Health Treatment for Chronic Multisymptom Illness (2013) / Chapter Skim
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2 Characterizing Chronic Multisymptom Illness
Pages 21-28

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From page 21...
... TERMINOLOGY The term chronic multisymptom illness was first used to describe chronic unexplained symptoms in Air Force veterans of the 1991 Gulf War (Fukuda et al., 1998)
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From page 22...
... Such terms as medically unexplained symptoms, medically unexplained physical symptoms, somatoform disorders (for example, somatization disorder, undifferentiated somatoform disorder, and pain disorder) , and functional somatic syndromes are often used to describe the disorders of civilians who have chronic unexplained symptoms.
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From page 23...
... (1998) arrived at their case definition for CMI by using both a statistical approach called factor analysis and a clinical approach in which symptoms had to be reported for at least 6 months by at least 25% of 1991 Gulf War Air Force veterans enrolled in the study and by deployed veterans ­ at least 2.5 times more often than by nondeployed military personnel.
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From page 24...
... Briefly, although symptom reporting was inconsistent among studies and no single symptom complex, or syndrome, was identified, deployed 1991 Gulf War veterans reported increased prevalence of fatigue, nervous system symptoms, respiratory symptoms, chronic musculoskeletal pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, mood and cognitive abnormalities, and sleep disturbance compared with nondeployed 1991 Gulf War–era veterans. Estimates of the prevalence of CMI among deployed 1991 Gulf War veterans indicate that CMI is twice as common in deployed veterans as in nondeployed 1991 Gulf War–era veterans.
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From page 25...
... Information about the prevalence of medically unexplained symptoms in veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is sparse. The most common health outcomes reported in the literature associated with service in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are PTSD, mild traumatic brain injury, and pain (Walker et al., 2010)
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From page 26...
... For example, in studies of unexplained symptoms in civilians, the samples tend to be mostly white women of middle age; only about 7% of military personnel in the 1991 Gulf War were women, and the overall mean age was 28 years. MANAGING VS CURING CHRONIC MULTISYMPTOM ILLNESS It is important to continue to describe, classify, and explain CMI.
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From page 27...
... 1998. Chronic multisymptom illness affecting Air Force veterans of the Gulf War.
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From page 28...
... 2001. Medically unexplained symptoms: An epide miological study in seven specialities.
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Key Terms

  • unexplained symptoms
  • chronic multisymptom
  • war veterans
  • multisymptom illness
  • chronic unexplained

  • medically unexplained
  • afghanistan wars
  • deployed veterans
  • force veterans
  • persian gulf

  • unexplained physical
  • military personnel
  • chronic medically
  • remain unexplained
  • describe chronic

  • war syndrome
  • health consequences
  • functional somatic
  • somatic syndromes
  • operation enduring

  • physical symptoms
  • committee defined
  • symptom complex
  • nexplained symptoms
  • cluster analysis

  • enduring freedom
  • stress disorder
  • musculoskeletal pain
  • iraqi freedom
  • study reported


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