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Veteran Beliefs About the Causes of Gulf War Illness and Expectations for Improvement

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Abstract

Background

Individuals’ beliefs about the etiology of persistent physical symptoms (PPS) are linked to differences in coping style. However, it is unclear which attributions are related to greater expectations for improvement.

Method and Results

A cross-sectional regression analysis (N = 262) indicated that Veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI) who attributed their GWI to behavior, (e.g., diet and exercise), had greater expectations for improvement (p = .001) than those who attributed their GWI to deployment, physical, or psychological causes (p values > .05).

Conclusions

Findings support the possible clinical utility of exploring perceived contributing factors of PPS, which may increase perceptions that improvement of PPS is possible.

Trial Registration

ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02161133.

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Data Availability

Data is available only with permission from the Veterans Affairs.

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Acknowledgements

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the US government.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: this work was supported by the Merit Review Award [#I01CX001053] from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Clinical Sciences Research and Development; Career Development Award [#IK2HX001369] from VA Health Services Research and Development Program; and the VA NJ War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC) and VA Office of Academic Affiliation. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02161133. Dr. Helmer’s salary was partially supported by the Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (VA HSRD #CIN 13–413) at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, Texas. Dr. Quigley was supported by the US Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (W911NF-16–1-019), the National Cancer Institute (R01 CA258269-01; R01 CA258269-01), the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH113234, R01 MH109464), the National Institute on Aging (R01AG071173), and the Unlikely Collaborators Foundation. The views, opinions, and/or findings contained in this paper are those of the author and shall not be construed as an official Department of the Army position, policy, or decision, unless so designated by other documents, nor do they necessarily reflect the views of the Unlikely Collaborator Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterans Affairs, War Related Illness and Injury Study Center, VA New Jersey Health Care System, East Orange, NJ, USA

    Naomi S. Kane, Raghad Hassabelnaby, Nicole L. Sullivan, Fiona Graff, David R. Litke & Lisa M. McAndrew

  2. VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, USA

    Naomi S. Kane

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Michigan Medicine, 2215 Fuller Road (116C), Ann Arbor, MI, 48105-2103, USA

    Naomi S. Kane

  4. William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, USA

    Raghad Hassabelnaby

  5. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    David R. Litke & Joseph F. Rath

  6. Department of Veteran Affairs, Bedford Memorial Hospital, Bedford, MA, USA

    Karen S. Quigley

  7. Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Karen S. Quigley

  8. Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, Canandaigua VA Medical Center, Canandaigua, NY, USA

    Wilfred R. Pigeon

  9. Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Drew A. Helmer

  10. Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Drew A. Helmer

  11. Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

    Wilfred R. Pigeon

Authors
  1. Naomi S. Kane
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  2. Raghad Hassabelnaby
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  3. Nicole L. Sullivan
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  4. Fiona Graff
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  5. David R. Litke
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  6. Karen S. Quigley
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  9. Drew A. Helmer
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  10. Lisa M. McAndrew
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Naomi S. Kane.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kane, N.S., Hassabelnaby, R., Sullivan, N.L. et al. Veteran Beliefs About the Causes of Gulf War Illness and Expectations for Improvement. Int.J. Behav. Med. 31, 169–174 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-023-10166-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-023-10166-1

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