I have decided to steer clear of the Gulf War issue because of the
large{*filter*}tail of chemicals to which the soldiers were exposed. I am
concentrating on known cases of organophosphate exposure and
subsequent clusters of ME. My current references on organophosphate
toxicity detail the acute effects and describe anecdotal evidence of
long-term neurological sequelae of acute OP exposure which include
loss of sensation in the lower extremities and difficulty in movement
along with muscle weakness but these reports also include long term
paralysis arising from permanent neurological damage and cell death.
Nerve cell degeneration cannot explain the rapid changes in the
neurological function of an ME patient and I am pursuing the
possibility that low dose chronic exposure to organophosphates may
lead to impairment of neurological function without causing widespread
neuronal degeneration. This effect could be specific to a limited
number of OP's so it remains a problem that long term chronic exposure
to some OP's would be expected to cause long-term paralysis not the
fluctuating symptoms of ME. OP's are seen as interchangeable from a
industrial insecticide view point so the issue becomes much more
complex once the patient has been exposed to a mixture of unknown
OP's.

Do you have information on the long-term neurologic sequelae of OP
exposure?

Neil Williams MRPharmS