The Board granted service connection for migraine headaches, left knee degenerative arthritis, right knee degenerative arthritis, and lumbosacral strain as secondary to the Veteran's unspecified depressive disorder. The Board also granted a 70 percent rating for the Veteran's unspecified depressive disorder from November 8, 2021.
The deciding factor: The private examiner provided well-researched opinions linking the Veteran's service-connected unspecified depressive disorder to his current conditions and obesity, which in turn contributed to the knee and back issues.
- Claimed conditions
- migraine headaches, left knee degenerative arthritis, other than post-traumatic, right knee degenerative arthritis, other than post-traumatic, lumbosacral strain, to include degenerative arthritis, left lower extremity sciatica
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 70%
- Decision date
- February 24, 2025
- Citation
- A25016400
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 998 · Granted: 40% (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 A25016400.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for bilateral hearing loss, migraine headaches, and PTSD due to additional development of records and examination.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the cases for additional development due to incomplete medical records and insufficient opinions regarding the relationship between service, including a stick injury in England, and current left eye disability (including amblyopia and cataracts) as well as migraine headaches.
- Granted
The Veteran's migraine headaches are productive of very frequent, completely prostrating and prolonged attacks capable of producing severe economic inadaptability. The Board has granted a 50 percent disability rating for the Veteran's service-connected migraine headaches.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for a higher rating for his service-connected migraine headaches was granted with an effective date of February 28, 2023.
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