The Board has granted service connection for a psychiatric disability, degenerative arthritis of the spine and lumbar spondylosis, and right knee arthritis. The Veteran's current conditions are found to be related to his military service.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner provided an opinion that the Veteran’s current back disabilities were not caused by service but rather due to normal aging and pre-service injuries.
- Claimed conditions
- persistent depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, degenerative arthritis of the spine, lumbar spondylosis, right knee arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- December 22, 2020
- Citation
- 20080364
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,604 · Granted: 65% (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 20080364.
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.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's service connection for other specified trauma and stressor-related disorder with persistent depressive disorder, anxious distress, and pure dysthymic syndrome was granted. The appeal for PTSD is dismissed as moot because the issue has been rendered irrelevant by the grant of service connection in another appeal stream.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal was dismissed due to their death during the pendency of the appeal.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected PTSD, major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, insomnia and alcohol use disorder caused his sleep apnea.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's persistent depressive disorder, moderate with anxious distress and panic attacks is related to his service in the Republic of Vietnam. The decision grants service connection for this condition.
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