Is Gulf War Syndrome Due to Stress?
The evidence reexamined. Haley RW. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 75235-8874, USA. Am J Epidemiol 1997 Nov 1;146(9):695-703 Medical policy-makers have concluded that stress from wartime trauma and deployment constitutes an important cause of the chronic physical symptoms observed in US veterans who served in the Persian Gulf War. The author reviewed scientific articles from peer-reviewed journals referenced in the final report of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ illnesses and conducted a MEDLINE literature search. All reported prevalence rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Gulf War veterans were defined by critical cutpoints on psychometric scales constructed by summing veterans’ responses on standardized symptom questionnaires rather than by clinical psychiatric interviews. Observed PTSD rates varied from 0% to 36% (mean, 9%). Correcting for measurement errors with previously determined
