New studies from the National Institutes of Health failed to find evidence of brain injury in scans or blood markers of diplomats and spies who suffered from symptoms of Havana syndrome, bolstering the conclusions of US intelligence agencies about the strange health occurrences.
Intelligence agencies have concluded that the debilitating symptoms associated with Havana syndrome, including dizziness and migraines, are not the work of a hostile foreign power. They have not identified a weapon or device that caused the injuries, and intelligence analysts now believe the symptoms are likely explained by environmental factors, existing medical conditions or stress.
The lead scientist on one of the two new studies said that while the study was not designed to find a cause, the findings were consistent with those determinations.
The authors said the studies contradict findings from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, who found differences in brain scans of people with symptoms of Havana syndrome and a control group.
Dr. David Relman, a prominent scientist who had access to classified files involving cases and representatives of people suffering from Havana syndrome, said the new studies were flawed. Many brain injuries are difficult to detect with scans or blood markers, he said. He added that the findings do not dispute that an external force, such as a directed energy device, could have injured the current and former government workers.
The studies were published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on Monday along with an article by Dr. Relman who was critical of the findings.
Incidents began to occur in larger concentrations in late 2016 and 2017 in Havana and later in China, Austria and elsewhere. The Biden administration took office in 2021 promising to improve health care for diplomats and spies suffering from the symptoms and promising to figure out what was causing them.
Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018 and 2019 showed that people affected by the syndrome had possible brain injuries that were different from typical concussion injuries or other traumatic brain injuries.
The NIH studies looked at a diverse group of people, with less than a third of the cases overlapping. Dr. Leighton Chan, the acting chief scientific officer for the NIH Clinical Center and the lead author of one of the studies, said that of the 86 participants, 24 cases were from Cuba, six from China, 17 from Vienna, nine from United States and 30 from other locations.
When looking at the brain scans, the researchers found no significant differences with the control group.
In a news conference discussing the results before their public release, the NIH scientists said their scans, done in a research setting, were more accurate than scans produced mostly in clinical settings during previous studies. They also said the control group was more closely matched to the study participants, improving the rigor of the study.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania said the two studies were “apples to oranges” comparisons because they looked at different groups of patients and the NIH study was not designed to replicate theirs.
The NIH scientists said they did not diagnose the patients with traumatic brain injuries or concussions. The diagnoses they offered, all so-called “functional neurological disorders,” are often caused by stress.
The studies did not rule out a possible external cause for the symptoms of Havana syndrome. But if someone wasn’t involved, Dr. Chan said, stress “may explain more of our findings.”
“It’s important to note that people with functional neurological disorders of any cause have symptoms that are real, distressing, and very difficult to treat,” Dr. Chan said.
The NIH diagnosis angered several people with symptoms of Havana syndrome who said it was offensive and misleading because it amounted to calling their symptoms psychosomatic or the result of mass hysteria.
Dr. Relman, who was among the leaders of a panel of experts set up by the intelligence agencies and another by the National Academy of Sciences, said the work of those groups found that the symptoms of some of the affected government employees could not have been caused by from stress or from psychosocial factors.
The NIH studies looked at a large group of people who reported different symptoms, rather than zeroing in on cases abroad where additional evidence suggests something odd might be going on, Dr. Relman said. In these cases, a hidden device capable of delivering directed energy in a targeted manner could be responsible.
“Putting all these cases together the way they did is just asking for trouble,” Dr. Relman said.
Mark Zaid, a lawyer for many people with symptoms of Havana syndrome, said many current and former officials treated at the NIH were upset that they were not told about the study before it was published. Mr Zaid said some patients were told they had to join the study to receive government treatment for their symptoms. Mr Zaid said this had raised ethical questions about patient consent.
Dr. Chan disputed this and said that the people who participated did so willingly and could have left the study at any time.
But Mr. Zaid said he feared the CIA and other intelligence agencies would improperly use the study to bolster their findings that they could not identify an external cause for the Havana syndrome cases.
“The concern is that the intelligence community is going to weaponize this study to show that the absence of evidence is evidence,” Mr Zaid said. “And it is not”.
