Abstract
Approximately 30% of the veterans serving in the first Persian Gulf War (1990 - 1991) are estimated to have complaints about their health such as joint pain, fatigue, myalgia, headache, memory or concentration difficulties, depression, sleep disturbances, and rash. This constellation of subjective and nonspecific symptoms has come to be described as Gulf War illness or Gulf War syndrome, while its diagnostic entity has not yet been established. In the present manuscript, the possible implications of the exposure to toxins including nerve and mustard chemical weapons, or pyridostigmine bromide, and psychological stress were reviewed especially from the viewpoint of the comparison with the symptoms observed in victims of the Tokyo subway sarin poisoning (1995) . The victims could provide precious data concerning the long term consequences of exposure to sarin, one of the chemical weapons actually exposed to Gulf War veterans. By comparing the symptoms and other neuropsychological data of Tokyo sarin victims with those of Gulf War veterans, we may be able to clarify the long term effect of sarin exposure and its relation to the development of Gulf War illness.
