Purpose: We performed a pilot study to determine whether nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) alleviates the symptoms of veterans with Gulf War illness (GWI) and sleep disordered breathing (SDB).
Methods: Eighteen male veterans with GWI and SDB recruited by advertisement, participated in a randomized, single-masked, sham-controlled treatment trial. Participants received 3 weeks of treatment during sleep with either therapeutic nasal CPAP or sham nasal CPAP. Using validated questionnaires, pain, fatigue, cognitive function, sleep disturbance, and general health were assessed by self-report before and after treatment. One of the participants assigned to therapeutic CPAP was excluded from the trial before starting treatment, leaving 17 participants.
Results: Compared to the nine sham nasal CPAP recipients, the eight participants receiving therapeutic nasal CPAP experienced improvements in pain (34%; p = 0.0008), fatigue (38%; p = 0.0002), cognitive function (33%; p = 0.004), sleep quality (41%; p = 0.0003), physical health (34%; p = 0.0003), and mental health (16%; p = 0.03).
Conclusions: Our findings in this pilot study suggest that nasal CPAP may greatly improve symptoms in veterans with GWI and SDB.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00252629.