The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for TBI, headaches, and a psychiatric disorder due to potential issues with the examination conducted by the VA. The Veteran is seeking service connection for these conditions based on his in-service experiences.
The deciding factor: The examinations were not conducted by one of the designated specialists (physiatrist, psychiatrist, neurologist, or neurosurgeon) and thus may not have been thorough enough to determine if the Veteran has a TBI related to service. The psychiatric disorder claim requires an opinion on whether it is at least as likely as not that the current condition was caused by pain from service-connected disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Headaches, Psychiatric Disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- August 8, 2023
- Citation
- 23044099
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 23044099.
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 has granted service connection for a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its residuals, including unsteady gait, somnolence, and cognitive dysfunction. The decision is based on the Veteran's credible lay statements about in-service head injuries and subsequent seizures.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for initial compensable ratings for obstructive sleep apnea and headaches, finding that the evidence does not support a finding of persistent daytime hypersomnolence or other manifestations consistent with a compensable disability rating under the criteria established by Diagnostic Codes. The matter is remanded to obtain additional information from the Veteran regarding his headaches and their impact on his daily life.
- Denied
The Board has determined that the Veteran does not have a current diagnosis of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and therefore, service connection for TBI is denied.
- Granted
The Veteran's OSA is granted as secondary to PTSD, but his headaches are denied due to lack of service connection.
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