The veteran is seeking service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder as secondary to his service-connected degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine with radiculopathy and tension headaches. The VA has not yet granted service connection for the tension headaches, so the examiner should address this issue in the remand.
The deciding factor: The veteran's acquired psychiatric disorder is being evaluated based on its secondary relationship to his service-connected degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine with radiculopathy and tension headaches.
- Claimed conditions
- acquired psychiatric disorder
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 21, 2004
- Citation
- 0413196
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,547 · Granted: 20% (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 0413196.
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.
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The Board has remanded the claims of entitlement to service connection for headaches, right hip disorder, left hip disorder, back disorder, and an acquired psychiatric disorder due to a failure to provide notice regarding the Veteran's right to a hearing.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is remanded due to the need for an addendum opinion regarding the nature and etiology of his unspecified neurocognitive disorder, which was diagnosed after a September 2021 heart surgery. The issues are about service connection on the merits.
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