About Reports

IOM reports provide objective and straightforward advice to decision makers and the public. This site includes IOM reports published after 1998. All reports from the IOM and the National Academies, including those published before 1998, are available from the National Academies Press.

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  Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2008 Released: July 24, 2009

  From 1962 to 1971, US military sprayed herbicides over Vietnam. Because of continuing uncertainty about the long-term health effects of the sprayed herbicides on Vietnam veterans, Congress passed the Agent Orange Act of 1991. The legislation directed the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to request the Institute of Medicine to perform a comprehensive evaluation of scientific and medical information regarding the health effects of exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam. Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2008 is the eighth report in this series.
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  Combating Tobacco in Military and Veteran Populations Released: June 26, 2009

  The health and economic costs of tobacco use in military and veteran populations are high. In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) make recommendations on how to reduce tobacco initiation and encourage cessation in both military and veteran populations. In its 2009 report Combating Tobacco in Military and Veteran Populations, the authoring committee concludes that to prevent tobacco initiation and encourage cessa¬tion, both DoD and VA should implement comprehensive tobacco-control programs.
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  Gulf War and Health: Volume 7. Long-term Consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury Released: December 3, 2008

  Under a Congressional mandate, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has reviewed a wide array of biologic, chemical, and physical agents to determine if exposure to the agents might be responsible for Gulf War veterans' long-term health problems. In this 2008 report, Gulf War and Health, Volume 7: Long-term Consequences of Traumatic Brain Injury, the IOM assesses the possible long-term health outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI).
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  Military Medical Ethics: Issues Regarding Dual Loyalties. Workshop Summary Released: November 20, 2008

  Military health professionals, as all health professionals, are ethically responsible for their patients’ well-being. In some situations, however, military health professionals can face unique ethical tensions between responsibilities to individual patients and responsibilities to military operations. This report summarizes the one-day workshop, Military and Medical Ethics: Issues Regarding Dual Loyalties, which brought together academic, military, human rights, and health professionals to discuss these ethical challenges.
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  Use of Dietary Supplements by Military Personnel Released: June 9, 2008

  The use of dietary supplements has become increasingly popular among members of the military. While some supplements may provide benefits to health, others could carry adverse effects that might compromise the readiness and performance of service members. The U.S. Department of Defense, the Samueli Institute, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with additional support from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) review the use of dietary supplements by military personnel, recommending a framework to identify the need for management of dietary supplement use within the military, and developing an approach to report adverse health events.
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  The Utility of Proximity-Based Herbicide Exposure Assessment in Epidemiologic Studies of Vietnam Veterans Released: March 5, 2008

  A lack of information about Vietnam veterans’ level of exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides has been a fundamental challenge in past studies evaluating whether veterans’ health problems might be linked to herbicide exposure during the war. A new Institute of Medicine report, The Utility of Proximity-Based Herbicide Exposure Assessment in Epidemiologic Studies of Vietnam Veterans, presents the conclusions and recommendations of a committee that was convened to provide guidance to the Department of Veterans Affairs about the best use of an exposure assessment model that was developed to address this problem.
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  Gulf War and Health: Volume 6. Physiologic, Psychologic, and Psychosocial Effects of Deployment-Related Stress Released: November 15, 2007

  This study comprehensively reviewed, evaluated, and summarized the peer-reviewed scientific and medical literature regarding the association between stress and long-term adverse health effects in Gulf War veterans, specifically the physiologic, psychologic, and psychosocial effects of stress.
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  Treatment of PTSD: An Assessment of The Evidence Released: October 17, 2007

  At the request of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) undertook a systematic review of the PTSD literature. After nearly 2,800 abstracts were identified, the application of inclusion criteria narrowed the list down to 90 randomized clinical trials, 37 pharmacotherapy studies, and 53 psychotherapy studies. The principal finding of the committee is that the scientific evidence on treatment modalities for PTSD does not reach the level of certainty that would be desired for such a common and serious condition among veterans.
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  Improving the Presumptive Disability Decision-Making Process for Veterans Released: August 20, 2007

  The Committee on Evaluation of the Presumptive Disability Decision-Making Process for Veterans was charged with describing the current process of how presumptive disability decisions are made for veterans who have health conditions attributed to military service and with proposing a scientific framework for making such presumptive disability decisions in the future. The resulting report, Improving the Presumptive Disability Decision-Making Process for Veterans, concludes that the presumptive disability decision-making process should be based on evidence about military exposures and veterans’ health and if a specific health condition for a specified group of veterans was at least as likely as not to have been caused by their military service.
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  Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2006 Released: July 27, 2007

  Because of continuing uncertainty about the long-term health effects of the sprayed herbicides on Vietnam veterans, Congress passed the Agent Orange Act of 1991. The legislation directed the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to request the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to perform a comprehensive evaluation of scientific and medical information regarding the health effects of exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam. Mandated updates to the original study were to be conducted every 2 years for 10 years. Veterans and Agent Orange, Update 2006 is the seventh report in this series.