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Background: Gulf War Illness(GWI), or chronic multisymptom illness(CMI), is a complex illness characterized by a diverse clinical presentation that may include fatigue, sleep and mood disturbances, cognitive dysfunction, and musculoskeletal pain.First defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) after the first Gulf War(Operation Desert Shield/Storm), it is commonly seen with a highly individualistic presentation, associated with clusters of symptoms and co-morbid medicaldiagnoses.Objective: Our study team recently completed a wait-list controlled RCT project, funded by the Department of Defense(W81 XWH) and with the aim of assessing the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of GWI.Methods: GWI is a complex illness with multiple manifestations thus our treatment plan offered tailored individualized treatments to target the symptoms most important to the subjects(n=104).Our main outcome is the physical component subscale of the Sf-36, but we also included validated measurements to capture changes in specific GWI symptom(such as sleep problems) as well as the patient-centered form, the MYMOP.Measurements were conducted every 2 months for the 6 months of the study.Results: As reported previously, we found improvements at the end of the study that reached statistical and clinical significance; for the higher dose group, scores from time 1(mean score=68.5) to time 4(mean score=75.7) did improve with statistical significance P≤0.003(Student’s t).A seven point improvement in this physical component of the Sf-36 was also clinically significant.Conclusion: This report focuses on the correlates and predictors of response, including: expectations for treatment, baseline symptom severity, confidence and satisfaction with treatment, presence of concomitant symptoms.Individualized acupuncture treatments may be an effective therapy for GWI, but as with other conditions, effect sizes may be influenced by subjects’ baseline characteristics and constitution.
Background: Gulf War Illness (GWI), or chronic multisymptom illness (CMI), is a complex illness characterized by a diverse clinical presentation that may include fatigue, mood and mood disturbances, cognitive dysfunction, and musculoskeletal pain. First defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after the first Gulf War (Operation Desert Shield / Storm), it is commonly seen with a highly individualistic presentation, associated with clusters of symptoms and co-morbid medical diabetes. Objective: Our study team recently completed a wait -list controlled RCT project, funded by the Department of Defense (W81 XWH) and with the aim of assessing the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of GWI. Methods: GWI is a complex illness with multiple manifestations thus our treatment plan offered tailored individualized treatments to target the symptoms most important to the subjects (n = 104). Our main outcome is the physical component subscale of the Sf-36, but we also included valid ated measurements to capture changes in specific GWI symptom (such as sleep problems) as well as the patient-centered form, the MYMOP. Measures were conducted every 2 months for the 6 months of the study. Results: As reported previously, we found improvements at the end of the study that reached statistical and clinical significance; for the higher dose group, scores from time 1 (mean score = 68.5) to time 4 (mean score = 75.7) did improve with statistical significance P ≦ 0.003 (Student’s t) .A seven point improvement in this physical component of the Sf-36 was also clinically significant.Conclusion: This report focuses on the correlates and predictors of response, including: expectations for treatment, baseline symptom severity, confidence and satisfaction with treatment, presence of concomitant symptoms.Individualized acupuncture treatments may be an effective therapy for GWI, but as with other conditions, effect sizes may be influenced by subjects’ baseline characteristics and constitutio n.