The veteran's claim for service connection for personality disorder and alcohol dependence is being remanded due to the need for additional development, including obtaining Social Security Administration records and office notes from a psychotherapist.
The deciding factor: VA failed to obtain necessary medical evidence and did not provide adequate notice of the consequences of failing to report for VA examination.
- Claimed conditions
- personality disorder, alcohol dependence
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 22, 2004
- Citation
- 0402176
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 3,038 · Granted: 30% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
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 0402176.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a duty-to-assist error, and will need to obtain an opinion regarding the nature and etiology of the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disability with alcohol dependence.
- Granted
The Veteran's acquired psychiatric condition, including personality disorder and PTSD, is granted as service connected. The Board found the evidence sufficient to grant service connection due to a qualifying event in service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder other than PTSD and depression, finding that his symptoms are adequately accounted for by his existing diagnoses of PTSD and major depressive disorder.
- Denied
The Veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions have been denied as new and relevant evidence has not been submitted to warrant readjudication.
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