The Veteran's service records show a motor vehicle accident in January 1981 resulting in TBI. The VA and private medical opinions support the finding of TBI, with associated symptoms like memory loss and headaches. Anxiety and major depressive disorder are found to be secondary to these TBI residuals.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's anxiety and depression were found to be due to his service-connected TBI residuals.
- Claimed conditions
- residuals of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), anxiety and major depressive disorder
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 13, 2019
- Citation
- 19111693
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,480 · Granted: 26% (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 19111693.
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 of service connection for bilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, and anxiety and major depressive disorder due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors. The Veteran's hearing loss and tinnitus are related to noise exposure during service, but not directly linked to service. His anxiety and depression may be related to harassment by leadership during service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for low back disability, an acquired psychiatric disability (including anxiety and major depressive disorder), left foot disability, right foot disability, and skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma and melanoma) due to unresolved issues.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include PTSD due to a military sexual assault (MTS), anxiety and major depressive disorder. The Veteran's claims of an MST have been corroborated by multiple VA providers who accepted her reports as credible.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's headaches are at least as likely as not caused by his service-connected traumatic brain injury, and thus grants service connection for this condition.
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