Report

Potential health consequences of service in the Gulf War have been a concern since U.S. troops returned home. Research and investigations to date indicate there is no single illness or syndrome common to all ill veterans. Questions have arisen as to whether there are effective treatments for the problems ill veterans are experiencing, and whether these veterans are receiving appropriate care.

In response to Section 105 of this legislation, the Department of Veterans Affairs asked the Institute of Medicine to convene a committee that would:

• identify and describe approaches for assessing treatment effectiveness;
• identify illnesses and conditions among veterans of the Gulf War, using data obtained from the VA and the DoD Gulf War Registries, as well as information in published articles; and
• for these identified conditions and illnesses, identify validated models of treatment (to the extent that such treatments exist), or identify new approaches, theories, or research on management of patients with these conditions if validated treatments models are not available.

The congressional legislation specifically requested that the Academy study address undiagnosed illnesses as well as any other chronic illness deemed to warrant review.