The Board has found the June 2019 VA psychiatric examination to be inadequate for purposes of evaluating the Veteran's service-connected anxiety with depressive disorder, due to its failure to consider relevant medical history and contemporaneous medical evidence. The claim is being remanded for a new retrospective examination.
The deciding factor: The June 2019 examiner failed to note contemporaneous treatment records reflecting significantly different psychological, physiological, and personality profiles than those identified by the June 2019 examiner.
- Claimed conditions
- Anxiety with depressive disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 13, 2020
- Citation
- 20046722
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 20046722.
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 Veteran's appeal for an initial rating in excess of 70 percent for anxiety with depressive disorder has been denied. The Board found that the evidence does not support a higher disability rating due to occupational and social impairment with deficiencies in most areas.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's service-connected anxiety with depressive disorder disability is being remanded for a new VA examination to assess the current severity of his condition. The TDIU claim has been granted, but the initial rating for anxiety with depressive disorder remains under review.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
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