A report released Thursday by the Institute of Medicine, a government advisory group that studies health and medical issues, recommends that the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs conduct careful studies “to confirm reports of long-term or latent effects of exposure to blasts.”

“Explosive devices and other weaponry have become more powerful and devastating throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are seeing much higher rates of (non-penetrating) traumatic brain injury and blast-induced injury among military personnel who have served in these countries than in earlier wars,” lead author George W. Rutherford, professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said.

The report is intended to help VA officials understand what conditions they should look for in brain-injured patients and to help officials determine disability benefits, Rutherford said.

The authors of the report reviewed 1,900 studies on traumatic brain injuries, looking specifically at problems that persisted more than six months. Blast injuries have only recently come to doctors’ attention because they are hallmarks of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. That happened probably because the brain can be traumatically injured many ways without loss of consciousness, doctors say, and many soldiers may not seek for treatment right away. Exposure to an energy source, as well as bullet or shrapnel wounds or blows can damage the brain and have side effects years after the wars.

Serious brain injuries account for 22 percent of US casualties in the two conflicts, the report found. Some 5,500 members of the military have suffered brain injuries from mild to severe. The report’s authors urge precise steps for studying how these patients fare years later so chances to help aren’t missed.

“I don’t think we really knew ho big a hole in scientific knowledge there is about blast-induced brain injuries,” Rutherford said.

Traumatic brain injury was linked with later-in-life risks including Alzheimer’s-like dementia, Parkinson’s-like symptoms, seizures, problems with social functioning and unemployment, depression, aggressive behavior and post-concussion symptoms such as dizziness and amnesia, risk of later memory, movement and seizure problems.

Therefore, the report recommends that every soldier exposed to a blast, even a low-intensity one, be screened for traumatic brain injury and that everyone get a pre-and post-deployment brain-functioning test. It also urges the Defense Department to conduct rigorous studies and a VA-run registry of traumatic brain injury patients to identify long-term risks and factors that improve or worsen outcomes in comparison to deployed troops with non-brain injuries.

The Department of Defense said they knew about the issues cited in the report and had already dedicated $300 million in the last two years for research on traumatic brain injuries. Recently they have started a long-term study on blast injuries.

Also, VA officials have 60 days to decide whether the long-term problems should be treated as related to brain-injured veterans’ military service.