The Board remands the claims for an addendum VA examination to address specific pieces of evidence and readjudicate the claims.
The deciding factor: The examiner's opinion is based on the examination interview, weight of medical evidence, including a negative nexus opinion from April 2003 and a letter from Dr. Shay in April 2017, but additional information is needed to properly adjudicate the issue.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired psychiatric disorder, to include bipolar disorder, recurrent manic depression and affective disorder
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 8, 2021
- Citation
- 21062629
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.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, finding a causal relationship between the condition and an in-service incident of military sexual trauma (MST).
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the issue of entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of May 29, 2019 for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder but denied earlier effective dates and increased ratings for other conditions.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, a right knee disorder, and a lumbar spine disorder.
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