Adults 18 to 80, any sex, with Gulf War Illness. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.
Results — posted to ClinicalTrials.gov
Per-arm endpoint measurements with 95% confidence intervals where reported. Source: trial results section.
Disability - WHO-DAS 2 ChangePrimary· Baseline and 12 weeks
World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule.
The WHO-DAS 2.0 measures disability due to physical and mental health conditions. The WHO-DAS 2.0 is a 36 item measure that focuses upon six life tasks:
* Understanding and communicating
* Self-care
* Mobility (getting around)
* Interpersonal relationships (getting along with others)
* Work and household roles (life activities)
* Community and civic roles (participation)
These six life tasks reflect two underlying constructs: Activity limitations and Participation deficits. Scores range from 0-100 with higher scores = more disability
Group
Value
95% CI
Problem-Solving Therapy
-2.81
± 1.16
Health Education
-2.21
± 1.12
Problem-Solving Inventory ChangeSecondary· Baseline and 12 weeks
Self-report problem-solving ability. Scores range from 32-192 with lower scores equally better problem-solving ability.
Group
Value
95% CI
Problem-Solving Therapy
-12.77
± 1.77
Health Education
-6.53
± 1.74
Problem-Solving Ability ChangeSecondary· Baseline and 12 weeks
Neuropsychological Battery includes: Halstead Category Test, Russell Revised Version, The Conner's Continuous Performance Test-3 (CPT-3), Stroop Color and Word Test, Trails Making Test A and B (TMT). Problem-solving ability was be created by standardizing (i.e., converting to z-scores) these neuropsychological tests based on administrative norms and averaging them. The Z-score indicates the number of standard deviations away from the mean. A Z-score of 0 is equal to the mean of a reference population (i.e., healthy, age and sex-matched). Negative numbers indicate values lower than the referenc
Group
Value
95% CI
Problem-Solving Therapy
13.81
± 7.5
Health Education
1.58
± 7.29
Disability - WHO-DAS 2 ChangeSecondary· Baseline and 6 months
World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule.
The WHO-DAS 2.0 measures disability due to physical and mental health conditions. The WHO-DAS 2.0 is a 36 item measure that focuses upon six life tasks:
* Understanding and communicating
* Self-care
* Mobility (getting around)
* Interpersonal relationships (getting along with others)
* Work and household roles (life activities)
* Community and civic roles (participation)
These six life tasks reflect two underlying constructs: Activity limitations and Participation deficits. Scores range from 0-100 with higher scores = more disability
Group
Value
95% CI
Problem-Solving Therapy
-2.61
± 1.45
Health Education
1.11
± 1.29
Pain Disability ChangeSecondary· Baseline and 12 weeks
Pain Disability Index (PDI). Scale ranges from 0-70 with higher scores meaning worse disability.
There are almost 700,000 Gulf War Veterans (GWV) with 25-30% suffering from a devastating multi-symptom illness coined Gulf War Illness (GWI). GWV with GWI report significant activity limitations and chronic cognitive problems consistent with problem-solving deficits. Problem-solving is considered the most complex of cognitive abilities and is what enables us to conduct complicated behaviors such as setting goals, sequencing and multi-tasking. As a result studies have found that problem-solving deficits are prospectively related to a greater risk of disability. Despite published reports documenting these problems there are no treatments that target the problem-solving deficits of GWI. This proposal seeks to determine whether Problem-Solving Therapy, a patient centered cognitive rehabilitation therapy, can reduce disability by compensating for problem-solving deficits.
Publications & conference data
8 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):
NCT05972291 — Mechanisms of Gulf War Illness
· NA
· recruiting
NCT05375812 — NIH Investigative Deep Phenotyping Study of Gulf War Veteran Health (Project NIH IN-DEPTH)
· recruiting
NCT05675878 — Confirmation of Diet as a Treatment for Gulf War Illness
· Phase 3
· recruiting
Other VA Office of Research and Development trials
Trials by the same sponsor.
NCT07456150 — Personalizing Veteran Pain Care: Adapting Coaching Interventions to Support Maintenance of Self-Care
· Phase 1
· not yet recruiting
NCT06746727 — The Development of a Transdiagnostic Intervention to Improve Social Functioning and Intimate Relationships Among Veteran
· NA
· not yet recruiting
NCT07362576 — Perinatal Peer Support for Veterans With Serious Mental Illness
· NA
· not yet recruiting
NCT06766331 — Integrated Care Versus Usual Care for Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Diseases in Veterans
· NA
· not yet recruiting
NCT07397195 — ACT for Veterans With IBD and Mental Health Challenges
· NA
· not yet recruiting
Publications: Europe PMC API search by NCT ID, retrieved 10 June 2026
Drug + disease cross-links: matched in real time against Drug Landscape's normalised drug + company + condition tables
Sponsor: as reported to ClinicalTrials.gov by VA Office of Research and Development
Last refreshed: 26 August 2020
Drug Landscape aggregates and links these public records for informational use only. Always verify against the primary source before clinical or regulatory decisions. Canonical URL: https://druglandscape.com/trial/NCT02161133.