The Veteran's acquired psychiatric disorder, including major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder, is granted. Service connection for obstructive sleep apnea is also granted as secondary to the service-connected psychiatric disorder. The Veteran's hypertension is denied.
The deciding factor: Service records do not show any in-service complaints or diagnoses related to these conditions, but current diagnoses are present and linked to service through medical evidence supporting a nexus between the disorders and service-connected conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- Left Knee Disability, Bilateral Shoulder Disability, Acquired Psychiatric Disorder (claimed as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder), Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Hypertension
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 26, 2019
- Citation
- 19149726
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.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for obstructive sleep apnea, left knee disability, and right knee disability. The claims for urinary frequency disability and residuals of a cholecystectomy were denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for diabetes mellitus type II and hypertension, to include as secondary to left orchiectomy, for further development in accordance with the PACT Act.
- Partly granted
The Board granted readjudication of previously denied claims for service connection for PTSD and COPD, while remanding other issues including entitlement to service connection for an eye disorder, hypertension, tinnitus, a compensable rating for bilateral hearing loss, TDIU, and an initial rating for PTSD.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for various disabilities and denied higher ratings for several service-connected conditions.
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