The Board has determined that new and relevant evidence has been received sufficient to readjudicate the claim of entitlement to service connection for a mood disorder. However, the Veteran's current mood disorder is not found to be causally related to his service-connected right knee disability or any other service-connected condition.
The deciding factor: The January 2019 VA examination found that the Veteran does not meet the criteria for any psychiatric condition and opined that his symptoms are more likely due to ordinary discouragement or sadness rather than a depressive disorder.
- Claimed conditions
- mood disorder
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 7, 2019
- Citation
- A19002576
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 A19002576.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
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 include major depressive disorder, mood disorder, and unspecified depressive disorder due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for a mood disorder as secondary to the service-connected headaches or tinnitus, finding no probative evidence linking the two conditions.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for further development, including obtaining private treatment records and scheduling VA examinations.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for an earlier effective date and a higher disability rating for stress-related headaches, as well as remanded the claim for a higher disability rating for a mood disorder due to a scheduling issue.
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