Nerve gas antidote a possible cause of Gulf war illness

A study conducted over two years by the Rand Corporation, a non-profit organisation financed by the US Department of Defense, suggests that pyridostigmine bromide may cause a number of symptoms affecting more than 100000 Gulf warveterans.

The 385 page report, written by Dr Beatrice Golomb, professor of medicine at the University of California and physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Diego, sharply contradicts two earlier studies—by a presidential advisory committee on Gulf war veterans' illnesses and the Institute of Medicine—both of which …