VA Research Wrap Up: New findings on COVID, substance use disorder and Gulf War Veterans’ experience

VA’s Office of Research and Development recently published three News Briefs highlighting new findings on COVID-19 and Gulf War illness, substance use disorder treatment and the experiences of Gulf War Veterans.

Researchers address Veteran concerns for GWI, COVID

VA researchers in West Haven, Connecticut, used VA’s Million Veteran Program (MVP) to address Veterans’ concerns that Gulf War illness may increase their risk for adverse COVID-related outcomes.

Their findings found overall that those who deployed overseas in the 1990–1991 Gulf War were not associated with increased COVID-related health risks, even in the early pre-vaccine pandemic days. MVP allowed the researchers to compare more than 130,000 Veterans, in which Gulf War Veterans were only 1.6% more likely to test positive for COVID. More research would be needed to see if the rate was consistent in the era of COVID vaccinations, but the study shows how the MVP database and VA research can be used to address Veteran concerns.

Hybrid telehealth model helps Veterans combat substance abuse

Contingency management (CM) is the use of tangible incentives to reinforce target behaviors. While it has proven to be an effective strategy for promoting behavior change, particularly in abstinence from substance use and adherence to injectable medications for substance use disorders, it can be a logistical and financial challenge. VA researchers repurposed a hybrid telehealth CM model from the COVID-19 pandemic to deliver core CM elements to Veterans with substance use disorders for a fraction of the labor and time CM normally requires.

The CM cohort received more than half as much medication (1.62 times) over a year as the comparison group, demonstrating that incentives for medication adherence do not need to be expensive to be effective.

Gulf War Veterans heard on VA experience

Researchers from the Portland VA Medical Center combined data from the VA project ‘Listening to Gulf War Vets: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Health Experience and Treatment of those with Chronic Multisymptom Illness’ with a survey of 39 Gulf War Veterans; the combined data aims to identify challenges Veterans face with persistent, unexplainable symptoms of chronic fatigue, pain, cognitive impairment and gastrointestinal distress, commonly known as Gulf War Illness (GWI).

Veterans spoke out on challenges in communication, navigating VA benefits and even having GWI recognized as an illness. While recent legislative and policy changes have made progress in this area, the researchers’ findings highlight historical gaps that could be addressed through standardized, institutional commitment and broader access to individualized care and treatments. View the full study from the “Journal of Patient Experience.”

For more Office of Research and Development updates, visit ORD online or go to https://www.research.va.gov/news_briefs/.