The Veteran's claim for service connection for alcohol abuse disorder is denied because the condition is not a compensable disability and there is no evidence of an in-service injury or disease that caused or aggravated this condition.
The deciding factor: The Veteran does not have a current diagnosis of alcohol abuse, which precludes service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- alcohol abuse disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 15, 2019
- Citation
- 19112182
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,435 · Granted: 22% (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 19112182.
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 has remanded the case due to a duty-to-assist error in the prior VA examination, and the Veteran's claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability is being returned for further evaluation.
- Granted
The Veteran's cause of death is due to complications from chronic alcohol abuse, which the Board finds was caused by or aggravated by an underlying acquired psychiatric disorder (insomnia). The Board grants service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection, a higher rating for PTSD, and TDIU have been dismissed due to the Veteran's death.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for all the claimed conditions as there was no evidence of a current disability at any point during the claims period or shortly prior to the claim being filed.
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