Neuropsychological Functioning in Gulf War Veterans Exposed to Pesticides and Pyridostigmine Bromide
Abstract
Gulf War (GW) veterans continue to complain of short-term memory and mood problems many years after their deployment. Suspected causes for these complaints include additive and/or synergystic effects of the varying combinations of exposures to pesticides pyridostigmine bromide (PB) low-level nerve agents and psychological trauma. Many pesticides are neurotoxicants as are PB and nerve agents. Two subsets of these chemicals organophosphates (OP) and carbamates are known to produce chronic neurological symptoms at sufficient exposure levels. It was the goal of this study to further evaluate the role of pesticides in the development of symptoms reported by GW veterans. This was accomplished by performing neuropsychological assessments with a group of military pesticide applicators. It was hypothesized that pesticide applicators with higher exposures would perform significantly worse on cognitive and neurological measures than a group of GW military personnel with very little pesticide exposure and that multiple chemical exposures (PB pesticides) would prove synergistic in terms of decreased cognitive and neurological functioning and increased physical symptoms. Study results showed that the multiple exposed group (PB pest) performed worse on information processing speed and reported increased mood complaints and health symptoms compared with the other exposure groups. The high pesticide group also performed worse on visual memory functioning.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA491742
Entities
People
- Maxine H Krengel
Organizations
- Boston University