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 and potentially pertinent 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
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,455 · Granted: 23% (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 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 has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder and PTSD. The Veteran will be asked to provide additional medical records and undergo a VA examination.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for tinnitus, arthritis, and memory loss. The decision found no evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
- Partly granted
The Board has not made a final determination on the claims of service connection for inguinal hernia, PTSD, joint pain, fibromyalgia, left knee disability, right knee disability, tinnitus, chronic fatigue syndrome, respiratory disability, sleep disorder, IBS, and headaches. The claims are remanded to obtain additional evidence and determine if these conditions are related to service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for additional development, including obtaining in-service psychiatric treatment records and scheduling a VA examination to determine the nature and etiology of any acquired psychiatric disorder.
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