The Board granted service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, including anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, and somatic symptom disorder, as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected disabilities.
The deciding factor: The private medical opinion concluded that the Veteran's anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, and somatic symptom disorder were caused by his service-connected degenerative arthritis, degenerative disc disease; right lower extremity radiculopathy, sciatic nerve; and right lower radiculopathy, femoral nerve.
- Claimed conditions
- anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, somatic symptom disorder
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 26, 2025
- Citation
- A25055487
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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for somatic symptom disorder, respiratory disorders (including COPD), nephrolithiasis, deviated nasal septum, and higher initial disability ratings for PTSD with unspecified depressive disorder with anxious distress and GERD, hiatal hernia, reflux esophagitis, Barrett's esophagus.
- 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.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for depression, PTSD, and an anxiety disorder due to the lack of a current diagnosis.
- Partly granted
The Board dismissed the appeal for service connection for anxiety disorder and denied service connection for hearing loss. The claims for service connection for GERD, right ankle limitations, and sinusitis were remanded for further development.
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