The Board has determined that the veteran's major depression is proximately due to or aggravated by his service-connected lumbar spine disability, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner opined that the veteran's back pain aggravated his depression, leading to a permanent worsening of symptoms which no longer exists.
- Claimed conditions
- Major Depression
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 30%
- Decision date
- December 19, 2002
- Citation
- 0218519
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0218519.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board granted an initial evaluation of 70 percent for the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disability, to include PTSD, anxiety disorder, and major depression.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability, to include PTSD, resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor based on a corroborated in-service stressor event.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of December 20, 2007 for the grant of service connection for posttraumatic stress disorder and increased ratings to 70% from March 27, 2020 to June 5, 2020, and 100% from June 5, 2020. The claim for a total disability rating based on individual unemployability was denied.
- Dismissed
The appeal was dismissed due to a procedural defect in the Veteran's January 2022 VA Form 10182, which resulted from a prohibited concurrent election under VA claims processing rules.
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