People with ‘Havana Syndrome’ Show No Brain Damage or Medical Illness
The largest and most comprehensive studies of ‘Havana Syndrome’ point to stress or group psychology as likely explanations for most “anomalous health incidents”
Now two medical studies that were conducted by the National Institutes of Health and released on Monday morning might finally have an answer. The researchers compared more than 80 of these affected individuals with similar healthy people. The results, detailed in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show no clinical signs or brain image indications to explain those widely varied symptoms.
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In the first study, led by Chan, investigators examined 86 people with AHIs, 42 women and 44 men, who last experienced an incident 76 days prior, on average. The participants were U.S. government staff and family members who had been in locations that included parts of Cuba, China and Austria, as well as the U.S. (All of these areas were past sites of Havana syndrome outbreak reports.) A third of these affected participants were unable to work because of their symptoms. (According to Chan, a few of the cases dated to 2015, which was prior to the previously reported cases in Cuba.) Clinical tests for hearing, balance, cognition, eyesight and blood work were matched against the results from 30 people with similar working backgrounds but no symptoms. The researchers found that the only significant differences between the two groups were increased self-reported symptoms of fatigue, stress and depression in people with AHIs, as well as self-reported trouble with balancing that was confirmed through testing.
Likewise, in a second study that looked at brain imaging in 81 of the same participants compared with 48 controls, investigators led by Carlo Pierpaoli of the NIH's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering found "no significant differences in imaging measures of brain structure or function" among the two groups. The findings are consistent regardless of where the cases originated. Balance problems were the most pronounced complaint among the participants with AHIs: they were seen during tests in more than a quarter of those affected by this syndrome. These cases of persistent postural-perceptual dizziness point to a brain function disorder that the NIH researchers say could be linked to either external injuries or psychological distress.
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"People who were told by trusted authorities that they suffered brain damage from a secret weapon will likely dismiss the NIH report as a government cover-up," says University of Maryland neuroscientist Douglas Fields. "It is, however, an excellent scientific study, with conclusions that are well supported by data, and the study will be viewed as highly credible by scientists."
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"People who were told by trusted authorities that they suffered brain damage from a secret weapon will likely dismiss the NIH report as a government cover-up," says University of Maryland neuroscientist Douglas Fields. "It is, however, an excellent scientific study, with conclusions that are well supported by data, and the study will be viewed as highly credible by scientists."
