BREAKING DEFENSE: Congress Should Drop Pentagon Experimental Drug FDA Waiver Clause

SOURCE:  Breaking Defense, November 13, 2017

https://breakingdefense.com/2017/11/congress-drop-sec-716-fda-exemption-from-ndaa/


ARCHIVED ARTICLE:

Congress: Drop Sec. 716 — FDA Exemption — From NDAA

Raytheon

The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act contains billions of dollars and much policy concerning medical research and, of course, matters relating to nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. We don’t cover most of those medical issues except when they relate to NBC issues or raise basic military policy considerations. This is one of those cases. In this commentary, the distinguished medical ethicist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Jonathan Moreno, calls on Congress to scrap a provision in the 2018 NDAA concerning emergency medical exemptions from FDA oversight. Read on! The Editor.

The final draft of the National Defense Authorization Act would give the Pentagon authority to decide when unapproved drugs and devices (called somewhat vaguely “agents of war” in the proposed legislation), could be used on military personnel in an emergency. Historical experience suggests that this is a very bad idea that would create both medical and morale problems for the military and obscure the difference between medical intervention and experimentation.

This proposal should be dropped from the legislation.

Those who support the new rules

Studies Yield Clues to Roots of Gulf War Illness: Presentations at the Society for Neuroscience meeting point to changes in neurons and connectivity between brain regions as potential components of the enigmatic condition.



ARCHIVED ARTICLE:

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/50930/title/Studies-Yield-Clues-to-Roots-of-Gulf-War-Illness/

Studies Yield Clues to Roots of Gulf War Illness

Presentations at the Society for Neuroscience meeting point to changes in neurons and connectivity between brain regions as potential components of the enigmatic condition.

By Shawna Williams | November 13, 2017  Combat in the Gulf War of 1990-91 lasted less than two months, but it’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of the troops who served in the Middle East during that time may still experience symptoms of Gulf War Illness (GWI). Thought to be caused by exposure to chemical and biological weapons or other hazardous chemicals, GWI’s symptoms include

Boston Study Shows Gulf War Chemicals Linked with Memory, Mood, and Cognitive Symptoms

(91outcomes.com) - Newly published research results show a clear link between higher chemical exposures during the 1991 Gulf War and increased cognitive and mood symptoms among veterans of that war.

The study included extensive interviews and examinations of "159 Gulf War-deployed preventative medicine personnel who had varying levels of pesticide exposures during their work as pesticide applicators or other preventative medicine roles".  

According to the study's publication, "Study results showed that the participants with both high pesticide and high [Nerve Agent Protective Pill (PB)] exposure performed worse on

VA: White matter brain damage linked to chronic musculoskeletal pain in Gulf War Veterans

SOURCE:  U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Research Communications, October 26, 2017

https://www.research.va.gov/currents/1017-White-matter-damage-linked-to-chronic-musculoskeletal-pain.cfm

More information: Stephanie M. Van Riper et al. Cerebral white matter structure is disrupted in Gulf War Veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain, PAIN (2017). DOI: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001038 

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White matter damage linked to chronic musculoskeletal pain in Gulf War Veterans

October 26, 2017

By Tristan Horrom 
VA Research Communications

Dr. Dane Cook is a professor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a health scientist and research physiologist at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. (Photo courtesy of UW) 

A study from the Madison VA Hospital in Wisconsin has shown that structural damage in the white matter of the brain may be linked to chronic musculoskeletal pain in Gulf War Veterans.

The results 

A Consumer's Perspective: Always Faithful

GEORGETOWN: Brain chemistry study shows chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War illness as unique disorders

(91outcomes.com)  A new research study out of Georgetown University adds further evidence to a growing body of research that suggests that Gulf War Illness is a diagnosable health condition distinct from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and other health disorders.  

This research was funded by the treatment-focused Gulf War Illness Research Program within the DoD Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (cdmrp.army.mil/GWIRP), and the Sergeant Sullivan Center, Dr. Barbara Cottone, Dean Clarke Bridge Prize, and the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke.

The diagnostic technology has been patented by the researchers.  

-91outcomes


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SOURCE:  Press Release, Eureka Alert
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-11/gumc-bcs110817.php

PUBLIC RELEASE: 10-NOV-2017

Brain chemistry study shows chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War illness as unique disorders

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

WASHINGTON -- Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have found distinct molecular signatures in two brain disorders long thought to be psychological in origin -- chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and Gulf War Illness (GWI). 

In addition, the work supports