The Board granted service connection for an adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected lumbosacral degenerative arthritis and disc disease, and also granted service connection for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as secondary to the same disabilities.
The deciding factor: Service connection was granted based on a private medical opinion that linked both conditions to the Veteran's service-connected back disability via obesity as an intermediate step.
- Claimed conditions
- Adjustment Disorder with Mixed Anxiety and Depressed Mood, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- June 4, 2025
- Citation
- A25049514
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 696 · Granted: 63% (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 A25049514.
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 of entitlement to service connection for vertigo and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error. The Veteran's hearing loss is not rated higher than 10 percent.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the claims for service connection for OSA and insomnia must be remanded due to inadequate VA examinations and opinions, as well as a failure to obtain TERA opinions on all relevant exposures.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for an initial rating in excess of 50 percent for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and a separate rating for chronic pulmonary embolism due to inadequate VA examinations.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to inadequate opinions in the current file, and thus the Veteran's claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability will be reconsidered with new evidence.
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