The Board has reopened the claims for service connection for hearing loss and situational anxiety/dysthymia, but denied service connection for hearing loss. The claim for PTSD was not addressed in this decision.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's mood disorder due to chronic pain/migraines with depressive features is related to his service-connected disabilities, warranting a 50% rating for migraine headaches prior to March 28, 2008, and a 30% rating thereafter. The claim for hearing loss was not reopened.
- Claimed conditions
- Hearing loss, Chronic acquired psychiatric disorder (situational anxiety/dysthymia), Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Mechanical cervical pain, Migraine headaches
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 19, 2009
- Citation
- 0910389
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 0910389.
What this means for you
A partial grant means some issues were granted while others were denied or remanded — common in multi-issue claims. Look at which issues went which way, and how each was argued.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for traumatic brain injury and migraine headaches due to right eye removal are granted. The claim for a compensable evaluation of xeroderma of the right eye is remanded.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's hearing loss and low back strain claims are remanded for further evaluation. The hearing loss claim is denied, while the low back strain claim requires additional examination to determine its severity.
- Denied
The Board denied an increased initial disability rating for migraine headaches, finding that the Veteran's symptoms did not meet the criteria for a 50% rating due to lack of very frequent completely prostrating and prolonged attacks productive of severe economic inadaptability.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for hearing loss, finding that the Veteran's current hearing loss disability is not related to military noise exposure and there is no evidence of a nexus between in-service noise exposure and his current condition.
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