The Veteran's migraine headaches and acquired psychiatric disorder, including recurrent major depressive disorder with psychotic features and depression NOS, are granted. Service connection for scars is denied as the effective date prior to April 17, 2013 cannot be established. The TDIU claim is remanded due to lack of a completed VA Form 21-8940 and incomplete SSA disability records. Service connection for tinnitus and carpal tunnel syndrome are also remanded.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's claims were granted based on direct service connection, but the effective date prior to April 17, 2013 cannot be established due to lack of communication from the Veteran regarding his intent to claim service connection for scars before that date. The TDIU claim is remanded as incomplete records are needed.
- Claimed conditions
- migraine headaches, an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include recurrent major depressive disorder with psychotic features and depression NOS
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 21, 2018
- Citation
- 18160082
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 18160082.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for bilateral hearing loss, migraine headaches, and PTSD due to additional development of records and examination.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases for additional development due to incomplete medical records and insufficient opinions regarding the relationship between service, including a stick injury in England, and current left eye disability (including amblyopia and cataracts) as well as migraine headaches.
- Granted
The Veteran's migraine headaches are productive of very frequent, completely prostrating and prolonged attacks capable of producing severe economic inadaptability. The Board has granted a 50 percent disability rating for the Veteran's service-connected migraine headaches.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for a higher rating for his service-connected migraine headaches was granted with an effective date of February 28, 2023.
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