The Board denied service connection for a psychiatric disorder other than adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood, but granted service connection for tinnitus.
The deciding factor: The evidence is at least evenly balanced as to whether the Veteran's tinnitus is related to in-service acoustic trauma, based on its onset after the acoustic trauma and continuance since that time until the post service diagnosis. As the reasonable doubt created by this relative equipoise in the evidence must be resolved in favor of the Veteran, entitlement to service connection for tinnitus is warranted.
- Claimed conditions
- depression and anxiety, tinnitus
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 5, 2025
- Citation
- A25020105
Want to see how appeals like this one tend to go? Appeals like mine
We are not the VA. Veterans’ Rights is an independent resource built for veterans. We are not the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, not part of the government, and not endorsed by any government agency.
This is general information, not legal advice. For advice about your own situation, talk to a VA-accredited representative — many help for free.