The Board has determined that additional opinions are needed to fully address the Veteran's claims for service connection due to potential issues with the presumption of soundness and secondary service connection.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's current stress-related disorder may be related to his active service, but any relationship must disregard evidence suggesting a pre-existing condition. The examiner should also consider whether substance abuse is at least as likely as not proximately due or aggravated by his stress-related disorder.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired psychiatric disorder (unspecified personality disorder, mixed personality features; alcohol use disorder, in full sustained remission; stimulant use disorder, in full sustained remission; major depressive disorder, recurrent, severe with psychotic features; unspecified trauma and stressor-related disorder with delayed expression), Hepatitis C
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19121371
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,863 · 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 19121371.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied a compensable initial rating for Hepatitis C, finding that the Veteran's condition was asymptomatic and did not meet the criteria for any higher rating.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's Hepatitis C with cirrhosis is related to service, and therefore grants service connection for these conditions.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's depressive disorder is granted as service-connected, with the Board finding it related to his active duty service and aggravated by his service-connected tibia fractures. The claim for hepatitis C is remanded due to inadequate medical opinions regarding its etiology.,Service connection for depressive disorder is established based on direct evidence of a current disability (depressive disorder) that was incurred during active duty service.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected Hepatitis C, lumbar DDD with strain, osteomyelitis, and loss of use of right foot disability rendered him so helpless as to be in need of regular aid and attendance. Effective October 28, 2008, the Veteran meets the criteria for SMC under various provisions.
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