BACKGROUND During the 1990-1991 Gulf War, approximately 700,000 U.S. troops were deployed to the Persian Gulf theater of operations. Of that number, approximately 100,000 have presented medical complaints through various registry and examination programs. OBJECTIVES Widespread symptomatic illness without defining physical features has been reported among veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. We asce...

S. Müller analyses lexicon entries referring to ancient Persia, including both traditional academic reference works such as Paulys Realencyclopadie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft and more recent children’s encyclopaedias. She points out the tenacity of commonplaces emerging in 19th century, an interpretation Persian war battle between freedom tyranny alleged civilizing drive Alexander Gr...

The suggestion that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was triggered by Gulf War service was first proposed when cases began to occur in young servicemen at an age when ALS is uncommon.1 This proposal gained widespread publicity following the formal recognition of ALS as a Gulf War–related illness by the Veterans Administration of the United States.2 This decision was made on humane and politi...

AIMS To investigate whether Australian Gulf War veterans have a higher than expected prevalence of recent symptoms and medical conditions that were first diagnosed in the period following the 1991 Gulf War; and if so, whether these effects were associated with exposures and experiences that occurred in the Gulf War. METHODS Cross-sectional study of 1456 Australian Gulf War veterans and a comp...

Since the 1991 Gulf War, more than 10 years and 1 billion dollars of health evaluations and research have been invested in understanding illnesses among Gulf War veterans. We examined the extensive published healthcare utilization data in an effort to summarize what has been learned. Using multiple search techniques, data as of June 2003 from four different national Gulf War health registries a...

BACKGROUND Evidence on the relation between fear of war and mental health is insufficient. We carried out a prospective cohort study to find out whether fear of nuclear war is related to increased risk of common mental disorders. METHODS Within two months preceding the outbreak of Persian Gulf War in January 1991, 1518 adolescents [mean age 16.8 years, SD 0.9] filled in a self-administered qu...

One central health question remains unanswered 7 years after the war with Iraq: Is there a "Gulf War syndrome"? Within a few months of returning home in 1991, some of the 750,000 Gulf War veterans from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada began complaining of fatigue, headaches, joint pains, sleep disturbances, cognitive difficulties, and other physical (somatic) symptoms (1). Approxima...