The veteran's alcoholism and polysubstance abuse were not incurred in the line of duty, and therefore service connection is denied.
The deciding factor: Service connection cannot be established for a disease or injury that results from the abuse of alcohol or drug use as per VA regulations effective October 31, 1990.
- Claimed conditions
- alcoholism, polysubstance abuse
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- September 19, 2008
- Citation
- 0832133
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 0832133.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
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 insufficient evidence regarding whether the Veteran's alcoholism is secondary to his service-connected adjustment disorder with anxiety and depression.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that additional development is needed to correct pre-decisional duty to assist errors and remands the case for further action on service connection and TDIU issues.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's motion to revise an August 2009 rating decision denying service connection for alcoholism (also claimed as depression) on the basis of clear and unmistakable error (CUE), finding no CUE in the original decision.
- Dismissed
The Board has dismissed the Veteran's appeals for service connection of various psychiatric conditions, including substance abuse condition, alcoholism, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and severe depression.
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