About the Research

The Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses (OSAGWI) was formed in late 1996 to leave no stone unturned in looking into the possible causes of illness among Gulf War veterans. As a complement to OSAGWI's extensive investigation of events that occurred and substances that Gulf forces were exposed to during the war, the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses commissioned RAND to summarize the scientific literature on the health effects of possible causes of illness. It was hoped that combining these sources of information would produce a more complete understanding of illnesses among veterans.

These scientific literature reviews are limited to information published or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journals, books, government publications, and conference proceedings. Unpublished information was occasionally used, but only to develop hypotheses.

To date, RAND has published literature reviews on the health effects of wartime stress, oil well fires, depleted uranium,Pyridostigmine Bromide, and the military use of drugs not yet approved by the FDA. RAND also conducted a survey designed to quantify the use of pesticides by the average U.S. military service member during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm between August 1990 and July 1991. Forthcoming reports will examine infectious diseases, immunizations, chemical and biological warfare agents, and pesticides.

This work is sponsored by the Office of the Special Assistant and was carried out jointly by RAND Health's Center for Military Health Policy Research and the Forces and Resources Policy Center of the National Defense Research Institute.