The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for a left knee disability and depression, as well as a temporary total evaluation for his back disability. The case is remanded to obtain additional opinions regarding the etiology of the Veteran's depression.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners did not provide adequate opinions on whether the Veteran’s depression is related to service or secondary to his service-connected back disability, and new evidence suggests a possible link to Mefloquine prescribed during service.
- Claimed conditions
- {"conditionName":"Left Knee Disability"}, {"conditionName":"Depression"}
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 23, 2019
- Citation
- 19105622
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,037 · Granted: 21% (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 19105622.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for a left knee disability, TBI residuals, and erectile dysfunction have been granted.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims to reopen the issues of entitlement to service connection for left and right knee disabilities are being remanded due to the need for additional medical examinations.
- Granted
The Board has reopened the Veteran's claim for service connection for a left knee disability and finds that new and material evidence has been received. However, the right knee disability is not related to service.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for service connection for depression was denied as there is no current diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder. The Board finds that the evidence does not support a finding for service connection for depression.
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