The Veteran's acquired psychiatric disability, to include schizophrenia, is found to be aggravated by his service-connected degenerative disc disease and degenerative joint disease of the thoracolumbar spine. The Veteran's sleep apnea is found to have been caused by his service-connected acquired psychiatric disability.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner opined that the service-connected spine disorder aggravated the Veteran's schizoaffective disorder, which in turn caused his sleep apnea.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired Psychiatric Disability, to Include Schizophrenia, Sleep Apnea
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 31, 2016
- Citation
- 1641963
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 1641963.
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.
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The Board denied service connection for sleep apnea, finding that the evidence did not support a link between the condition and service.
- Denied
The claims for PTSD, an acquired psychiatric disorder, memory loss/memory problems, chronic fatigue, sleep difficulties/sleep disturbances, and sleep apnea have been denied. The claim for service connection for residuals of testicular denervation and varicosectomy has been granted.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's asthma is currently rated at 30 percent, and the Board finds that a higher rating is not warranted.,The Veteran's sleep apnea claim has been remanded due to duty-to-assist errors.
- Denied
The Veteran's appeal for increased ratings and service connection claims have been denied. The Board found that the evidence did not support a higher rating for PTSD, denied service connection for CFS, mast cell activation syndrome, and sleep apnea as secondary to PTSD, and remanded TDIU.
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