The Veteran's acquired psychiatric disorder, diagnosed as unspecified anxiety disorder, unspecified depressive disorder, and alcohol use disorder with chronic sleep impairment is granted secondary to service-connected tinnitus. The Board also found that the Veteran's hypertension, migraines, vertigo, left knee disorders (including left ankle sprain and right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis), right ankle disorders (including left ankle sprain and right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis), right foot disorders (including left ankle sprain and right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis), left foot disorders (including left ankle sprain and right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis), right leg varicose veins, and left wrist disorder are also granted secondary to service-connected tinnitus.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disorder is proximately due to his service-connected tinnitus. The same reasoning applies to the other issues as well, given the Veteran's contentions and medical evidence supporting a link between his service-connected conditions and these disorders.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired psychiatric disorder (unspecified anxiety disorder, unspecified depressive disorder, alcohol use disorder with chronic sleep impairment), Hypertension, Migraines, Vertigo, Left knee disorder (including left ankle sprain and right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis), Right ankle disorder (including left ankle sprain and right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis), Right foot disorder (including left ankle sprain and right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis), Left foot disorder (including left ankle sprain and right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis), Right leg varicose vein (including right knee meniscal tear with degenerative arthritis and left ankle sprain), Left wrist disorder
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 26, 2024
- Citation
- 24004208
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,569 · Granted: 26% (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 24004208.
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
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- Granted
The Veteran's initial evaluation for tension headaches to include migraines is granted, with a rating of 50 percent effective from May 23, 2023.
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