The Board granted service connection for major depressive disorder with anxious distress (MDD) based on a diagnosis and evidence linking the condition to an in-service event.
The deciding factor: The October 2024 VA medical opinion concluded that the Veteran's diagnosed MDD is at least as likely as not caused by the in-service event, detailed as the in-service Axis II diagnosis of personality disorder as the precursor of MDD.
- Claimed conditions
- major depressive disorder with anxious distress (MDD)
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- January 30, 2025
- Citation
- A25008793
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,902 · Granted: 11% (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 A25008793.
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.
- Granted
The Board granted the restoration of service connection for major depressive disorder with anxious distress and traumatic brain injury effective October 1, 2018.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for further development, including a formal finding of unavailability of private medical records and scheduling VA examinations to determine the nature and etiology of the claimed conditions.
- Dismissed
The appeal seeking an earlier effective date for the 70 percent rating for MDD and a compensable rating for hypertension was dismissed due to an impermissible concurrent election.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an initial disability rating of 40 percent for lumbosacral strain, a 70 percent rating for major depressive disorder with anxious distress (MDD) from January 13, 2020 to July 18, 2021, and a total disability rating based upon individual unemployability due exclusively to service-connected MDD effective October 13, 2020.
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