The Board denied service connection for a psychiatric disability, to include PTSD, due to the lack of evidence showing a current diagnosis and an in-service stressor. The claim was also remanded for further development regarding macular degeneration.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's reported stressors were credible but there was no current diagnosis for PTSD or a psychiatric disability, which is required for service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- Macular degeneration, Psychiatric disability, to include PTSD
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 25, 2025
- Citation
- A25016683
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,092 · Granted: 42% (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 A25016683.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied a disability rating in excess of 70 percent for the Veteran's service-connected psychiatric disability and remanded issues related to back and macular degeneration disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the appeal for a VA opinion to clarify the Veteran's psychiatric disabilities and provide an opinion based on correct facts regarding whether any psychiatric disability was related to service. It also remands the claim for sleep apnea due to an inaccurate factual premise in the previous VA examiner's report.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to legal inadequacies in the notification letter and a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error, as well as an inadequate medical decision regarding eligibility for higher-level PCAFC benefits.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for a disability rating in excess of 50 percent for his psychiatric disability, service connection for his back disability, and service connection for macular degeneration due to outstanding VA treatment records and the need for additional examinations.
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