The Board has reopened the veteran's claim for service connection for a gastrointestinal disability and finds that it is proximately due to or the result of his service-connected orthopedic disabilities. The claims for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder and a cervical spine disability are also granted as secondary to service-connected knee and low back disabilities.
The deciding factor: The veteran's gastrointestinal, psychiatric, and cervical spine conditions are found to be related to his service-connected knee and low back disabilities due to the use of NSAIDs prescribed for these conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired psychiatric disorder, Cervical spine disability, Gastrointestinal disability (gastroesophageal reflux disease and hiatal hernia)
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 7, 2006
- Citation
- 0623407
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,645 · Granted: 19% (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 0623407.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for a low back disability and an increased rating for his acquired psychiatric disorder. The Board found that there was no evidence linking the current disabilities to military service.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected cervical spine disability is rated at 20 percent, the maximum rating available under the General Formula for Diseases and Injuries of the Spine. The evidence does not support a higher rating as his range of motion did not meet the criteria for an increased rating.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for a determination on whether injuries sustained in a November 2001 incident were in the line of duty. The claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder is also remanded due to its interdependence with the line of duty issue.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to a duty to assist error in failing to obtain private treatment records from the Veteran's treating clinician.
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