THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE
Health and Medicine Division
Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice
Committee on the Mental Health Effects of Toxic Exposures Among Veterans
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Congressional Briefing
Thursday, August 14, 2025 – 2:30 p.m.
via Zoom
On
Exploring Military Exposures and Mental, Behavioral, and Neurologic Health Outcomes Among Post-9/11 Veterans
At the request of Congress in P.L. 117-168, the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022, this new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine assesses 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.
This briefing was for members of Congress and congressional staff only. The report was publicly released on August 19, 2025 and can be found, in its entirety, on the Web site of the National Academies Press.