Full Description
Military personnel, who are often exposed to a variety of hazards while deployed, have expressed concerns that mental, behavioral, and neurologic health issues may arise from these exposures. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, in accordance with Section 507 of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (PACT Act), requested that the National Academies convene a committee of experts to assess possible relationships between exposures experienced during military service and mental, behavioral, and neurologic health conditions and chronic multisymptom illness. Consistent with the PACT Act, the committee focused on veterans deployed to the Southwest Asia Theater of Operations or Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. The resulting report offers conclusions regarding possible risk-conferring relationships between nine categories of exposures and health outcomes including depression, anxiety, and dementia.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Summary
Summary Annex: Conclusions
1 Introduction
2 Background and Military Context
3 Military-Related Environmental and Occupational Exposures
4 Methods
5 Description of the Study Sample
6 Results for Mental and Behavioral Health Outcomes
7 Results for Neurologic Outcomes
8 Results for Chronic Multisymptom Illness
9 Concluding Remarks
Appendix A: Public Law 117-168
Appendix B: Public Meeting Agendas
Appendix C: Committee and Staff Biosketches
Appendix D: ICD-10 Codes for Health Outcomes
Appendix E: Phecode to ICD-10 Code Mapping
Appendix F: Comparison of Characteristics of Alternative Study Cohorts
Appendix G: Odds Ratio Tables
