The Board remands the claims for an acquired psychiatric disability and tinnitus to correct a duty to assist error, requiring additional medical opinions.
The deciding factor: The August 2023 medical opinion is inadequate due to incorrect factual basis and lack of adequate rationale regarding the Veteran's mental health history. For tinnitus, the opinion lacks evidence of hearing loss during service or documentation of hazardous noise exposure in service records.
- Claimed conditions
- Acquired psychiatric disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 26, 2025
- Citation
- A25055524
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for a rating in excess of 50 percent for her acquired psychiatric disability, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability, to include PTSD, as the evidence did not support a finding that his current mental health conditions were related to his active duty service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's appeal for a disability rating in excess of 50 percent for an acquired psychiatric disability, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection for a psychiatric disability to provide the Veteran with a VA examination.
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