Tribunal declares Gulf war syndrome an "umbrella term"

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7525.1103

BMJ 2005;331:1103 (12 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7525.1103

News roundup

Tribunal declares Gulf war syndrome an "umbrella term"

London Owen Dyer

Official recognition for Gulf war syndrome moved a step closer last week when a war pensions appeal tribunal granted a disability award to a former guardsman, saying that his illness was best described under the �umbrella term� Gulf war syndrome.

Daniel Martin, who served as an army doctor in the 1991 Gulf war, appealed against the Ministry of Defence�s decision to reject his application for a war pension. He told the tribunal that he had a range of symptoms, including bilateral knee pain disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, memory loss, depression, asthma, and arthralgia.

The tribunal panel stopped short of recognising Gulf war syndrome as a disease. The appellant, according to the ruling, �failed to produce reliable evidence to satisfy the burden of proof . . . in relation to whether [the syndrome] is a discrete pathological entity.� But they agreed with the findings of Lord Anthony Lloyd�s . . . [Full text of this article]

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