PHYSICAL HEALTH SYMPTOMATOLOGY OF GULF-WAR ERA SERVICE PERSONNEL FROMTHE STATES OF PENNSYLVANIA AND HAWAII

We present data on physical health and possible ''Gulf War syndrome'' from a Congressionally mandated study of over 4,000 active duty and re serve service members from the states of Hawaii and Pennsylvania who s erved during Operation Desert Storm. We found that deployed veterans r eport significantly more physical health symptoms than non-deployed ve terans that cannot be explained by reasons other than deployment alone . We also identified a subgroup of 178 deployed veterans at risk for p ossible Gulf War syndrome. We recommend that services collect baseline information from units likely to deploy in the future and update that information regularly.