The appeal is being remanded to ensure compliance with the Board's prior July 2007 remand directive, which included providing a more adequate and thorough VA examination and opinion for the claim at issue.
The deciding factor: The September 2007 VA psychiatric examination was found to be deficient in two key respects: it did not provide an opinion regarding whether the severity of the Veteran's PTSD prevents him from obtaining and maintaining substantially gainful employment, and it failed to explain the meaning of the GAF score assigned.
- Claimed conditions
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 12, 2009
- Citation
- 0905214
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,669 · Granted: 23% (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 0905214.
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 remanded the case due to insufficient medical opinions regarding the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disorders and their relationship to service.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including his bilateral lower extremity conditions and PTSD, resulted in a loss of use of both lower extremities such that he is entitled to specially adapted housing.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, finding that these conditions are related to military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's right and left hand pain are granted increased ratings, while his PTSD is denied an initial rating in excess of 50 percent.
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