A normative construction of Gulf War syndrome

In early 1992, U.S. troops returning from the Gulf War began reporting a variety of nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, skin rash, headache, muscle and joint pain, and loss of memory. These reports marked the beginning of what was to be identified as the Gulf War Syndrome (GWS). In the years since the war, as many as 100,000 troops have claimed they suffer from this mysterious disease. In our culture, the existence of disease as a specific entity is fundamental to ensuring the validity of that disease. The legitimacy of GWS has been repeatedly called into question because no specific physiological etiology has been confirmed, and it is becoming more and more likely that the origin of GWS will never be clearly delineated. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the complicated process of defining GWS as a legitimate illness in the absence of etiological evidence and to suggest a method of treatment for individuals who still suffer from its sequelae.