The Board granted service connection for depressive disorder, secondary to the Veteran's service-connected bilateral spondylolisthesis.
The deciding factor: The private medical opinion provided a nexus between the Veteran's depressive disorder and his service-connected bilateral spondylolisthesis, while the VA opinion did not provide such a link. The Board found the evidence approximately balanced or nearly equal, thus granting service connection based on the benefit of the doubt doctrine.
- Claimed conditions
- depressive disorder
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- October 9, 2025
- Citation
- A25087789
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