The Board has determined that the previous medical opinions are inadequate and requires a new opinion to determine if the Veteran's death was caused by an acquired psychiatric disability or chronic alcohol abuse.
The deciding factor: Previous medical opinions were found insufficient due to lack of review of relevant records, including mental health records from before 1999 and Service Treatment Records from 1975 and 1976.
- Claimed conditions
- adjustment disorder with depressive features, chronic alcohol abuse
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- March 15, 2019
- Citation
- 19118896
Veterans Law Judge
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. Read the original VA decision (opens in a new tab) using citation 19118896.
What this means for you
A remand sends an issue back for more development, often a new examination or missing records. It does not award the benefit or decide the final outcome. The original decision explains the additional work ordered.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted education benefits at the 100 percent rate under the Post-9/11 GI Bill due to his service-connected disability and discharge.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for cause of death and accrued benefits due to lack of timely filing.
- Granted
The Veteran's currently diagnosed adjustment disorder with depressive features is granted as secondary to his service-connected degenerative arthritis of the left shoulder, cervical spine, and bilateral hips.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, including PTSD, major depression, schizoaffective disorder bipolar type, schizoaffective personality disorder, bipolar disorder, psychotic disorder NOS, paranoid schizophrenia, and adjustment disorder with depressive features, is remanded due to the failure to provide a VA examination as per the Board's February 2022 remand directives.
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