The Veteran's claim for service connection for schizophrenia has been reopened and is granted. The issue of entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, variously diagnosed, remains pending.
The deciding factor: New evidence received since the August 1977 rating decision tends to indicate aggravation of a preexisting mental disorder or service incurrence of a mental disorder, raising a reasonable possibility of substantiating the claim of service connection for schizophrenia.
- Claimed conditions
- schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness with paranoid characterological features, affective disorder (schizo-affective type), bipolar disorder
- How they argued it
- Presumptive (no nexus needed)
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 25, 2019
- Citation
- 19181113
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 an effective date of December 12, 2023, for a 50 percent evaluation of bipolar disorder and remanded the other issues for further development.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired mental health condition, to include major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder, based on new evidence.
- Partly granted
The Board denied service connection for bipolar disorder and denied increased ratings for the lumbar disability, left and right sciatica, and chronic sinusitis. However, it granted an increased rating of 40 percent from March 7, 2022, for left and right sciatic radiculopathy and restored a 30 percent rating for chronic sinusitis.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, diagnosed alternatively as schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder, due to an inadequate VA examiner's opinion and a failure to fulfill the duty to assist in obtaining relevant medical records.
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