The Board remands the claim for service connection for cause of death to obtain additional medical opinions regarding an acquired psychiatric disorder and TBI residuals.
The deciding factor: The September 2021 VA opinions were found inadequate as they did not address all required elements and provided speculative conclusions without sufficient rationale.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired psychiatric disorder, Traumatic brain injury (TBI) residuals
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 11, 2025
- Citation
- A25022529
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 granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, finding a causal relationship between the condition and an in-service incident of military sexual trauma (MST).
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the issue of entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an effective date of May 29, 2019 for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder but denied earlier effective dates and increased ratings for other conditions.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, a right knee disorder, and a lumbar spine disorder.
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This is general information, not legal advice. For advice about your own situation, talk to a VA-accredited representative — many help for free.