Doctors monitoring British troops in the Iraq war reported on Tuesday that so far they see no repeat of the notorious yet elusive condition known as Gulf War Syndrome, which surfaced after the 1991 conflict.
British specialists also found that part-time British soldiers were more likely to suffer from common mental disorders such as anxiety or depression.
In a study published online by the British medical journal The Lancet, health experts from King's College, London, surveyed a cross-section of male British military personnel deployed to Iraq, and counterparts who were not sent to the conflict.
The 50-question checklist asked whether the respondent had suffered from fatigue, sleeping problems, joint stiffness, night sweats, forgetfulness, dizziness, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting or other symptoms.
The researchers found only a slight increase in common symptoms of ill health among the troops who were sent to Iraq compared with similar personnel who were not deployed there.
These findings contrast sharply with an identical survey conducted after the 1991 Gulf War, where tiredness and irritability, cognitive problems and musculoskeletal pain were widely reported among frontline troops.