The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims of service connection for various mental health conditions due to duty-to-assist errors. The Veteran was receiving Supplemental Security Income from Social Security Administration, but VA did not attempt to obtain his SSA records.
The deciding factor: VA failed to obtain the Veteran’s Social Security Administration (SSA) records despite evidence indicating they were relevant to his claims.
- Claimed conditions
- schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, social phobia (also claimed as terrorist threat phobia), posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder (also claimed as social anxiety disorder and panic disorder), conversion disorder (claimed as conversation disorder), depression, delirium (also claimed as sexual hallucinations), sleep disorder, memory loss, ADHD (also claimed as a learning disability, OCD, alcohol addiction, and drug addiction), personality disorder (also claimed as antisocial personality disorder, multiple personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and histrionic personality disorder), dissociative fugue
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 30, 2019
- Citation
- A19002408
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 remands the claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder to ensure a proper examination and etiology opinion are provided.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, including back pain, knee and wrist joint pains, neck pain, anxiety, depression, as further development is needed to properly adjudicate these claims.
- Partly granted
The appeal for service connection for allergic rhinitis and lumbosacral or cervical strain was dismissed due to untimeliness, while the other issues were remanded for further evidence.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for generalized anxiety disorder and denied service connection for a lower back disorder. The claims for depression, substance abuse disorder, and a compensable initial rating for bilateral hearing loss were dismissed.
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