The Veteran's current MDD and unspecified anxiety disorder are etiologically related to his active service, and the Board grants entitlement to service connection for these conditions.
The deciding factor: The evidence supports a direct relationship between the Veteran's in-service symptoms and his current psychiatric disorders.
- Claimed conditions
- MDD, an unspecified anxiety disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 22, 2020
- Citation
- 20005344
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,874 · Granted: 33% (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 20005344.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for an increased rating for his acquired psychiatric disability and a TDIU due solely to service-connected acquired psychiatric disability are being remanded because the VA did not provide him with a new VA examination, which is a pre-decisional duty to assist error. The Veteran will be scheduled for a VA examination to determine the current severity of his service-connected acquired psychiatric disability.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, specifically unspecified anxiety disorder. The evidence is at least evenly balanced that this condition began during active service and is related to in-service events.
- Granted
The Board has granted an effective date of March 1, 2023 for the award of special monthly compensation (SMC) based on the need for regular aid and attendance due to service-connected PTSD with secondary major depressive disorder.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected PTSD with MDD prevented him from securing or following a substantially gainful occupation prior to March 31, 2021.
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