VA Notes Association of Gulf Service & Disorder

WASHINGTON (CN) – The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced that it will assume an association between military service in the Southwest Asia Theater of operations during the Persian Gulf War and later development of functional gastrointestinal disorders, when assigning benefits.     The applicable disorders are medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illnesses.     When the VA assumes an association, it relieves the veteran applying for benefits of having to supply evidence of the connection between the veteran’s service and the malady.     The new assumption implements a decision by the Secretary of the VA based on a 2010 National Academy of Sciences report.     Click the document icon for this regulation and others.