The Board denied service connection for a psychiatric disorder as there was no evidence that the condition was incurred in or aggravated by service, and psychosis may not be presumed to have been incurred in service.
The deciding factor: The lack of documented evidence of abnormal psychiatric symptoms during service and within one year after separation from service, along with the absence of a positive medical opinion linking the current psychiatric disorder to service, led to the denial of the claim.
- Claimed conditions
- psychiatric disorder, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 23, 2009
- Citation
- 0906534
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.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of December 12, 2023, for a 50 percent evaluation of bipolar disorder and remanded the other issues for further development.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired mental health condition, to include major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, based on new evidence.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection of a psychiatric disability to correct an error in not securing an adequate medical opinion.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for bipolar disorder and denied increased ratings for the lumbar disability, left and right sciatica, and chronic sinusitis. However, it granted an increased rating of 40 percent from March 7, 2022, for left and right sciatic radiculopathy and restored a 30 percent rating for chronic sinusitis.
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