The Board has determined that the evidence is at least in equipoise as to whether the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disorder and migraine headaches are related to his military service, particularly due to stressors experienced during active duty. As such, the claims for these conditions have been granted.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner found a link between the Veteran’s in-service stressors and current psychiatric symptoms, and noted that the Veteran's headaches were likely secondary to uncontrolled hypertension.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired psychiatric disorder (including PTSD, depression, anxiety, and sleep disorder), Migraine headaches
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 22, 2020
- Citation
- 20080553
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,810 · Granted: 23% (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 20080553.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for traumatic brain injury and migraine headaches due to right eye removal are granted. The claim for a compensable evaluation of xeroderma of the right eye is remanded.
- Denied
The Board denied an increased initial disability rating for migraine headaches, finding that the Veteran's symptoms did not meet the criteria for a 50% rating due to lack of very frequent completely prostrating and prolonged attacks productive of severe economic inadaptability.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection and increased ratings were dismissed due to an improper concurrent election.
- Granted
The Veteran's 50% disability evaluation for migraine headaches was restored to May 12, 2021 after the reduction in rating was found not proper.
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