The Board remands the issue of entitlement to an initial compensable disability rating for cluster headaches prior to April 5, 2023, to obtain a retrospective medical opinion and outstanding VA treatment records.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary due to deficiencies in the record regarding the severity, frequency, and duration of the Veteran's cluster headache symptoms before April 5, 2023, and to ensure compliance with VA's duty to assist by obtaining relevant VA treatment records.
- Claimed conditions
- Cluster headaches
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 21, 2025
- Citation
- A25090770
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 837 · Granted: 24% (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 A25090770.
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 service connection for bilateral hearing loss, tinnitus, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), alcohol use disorder, and cluster headaches. The claims were remanded for further development of the evidence regarding unspecified mood disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and somatic symptom disorder.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for cluster headaches as secondary to tinnitus and denied an initial compensable rating for a right ankle scar.
- Remanded (sent back)
The appeal for eligibility for benefits under the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA's) Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers is remanded due to an AOJ error in satisfying a regulatory and statutory duty.
- Dismissed
The veteran withdrew his appeals for increased ratings and service connection, dismissing all claims.
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