The Board denied service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability, including depressive disorder and/or anxiety, as secondary to left hand cold weather injury residuals due to a lack of medical evidence linking the Veteran's current psychiatric symptoms to his service-connected frostbite disabilities.
The deciding factor: The probative weight of the evidence is against a finding of a medical nexus between the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disability and his service-connected left hand cold weather injury residuals, as the VA examiners attributed the Veteran's depressive disorder to non-service-connected diabetes and his anxiety-related symptoms to situational stressors.
- Claimed conditions
- depressive disorder, anxiety
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 15, 2025
- Citation
- A25034757
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder to ensure a proper examination and etiology opinion are provided.
- Remanded (sent back)
The appeal is remanded for further development and consideration of the Veteran's claims for service connection for various acquired psychiatric disorders.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, including back pain, knee and wrist joint pains, neck pain, anxiety, depression, as further development is needed to properly adjudicate these claims.
- Granted
The Board granted a disability rating of 50 percent for the Veteran's acquired psychiatric disorder, characterized as depressive disorder, effective May 1, 2017.
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