The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, including anxiety disorder, panic disorder, subclinical PTSD, generalized anxiety disorder, and major depressive disorder with anxious distress, as secondary to his service-connected tinnitus.
The deciding factor: The March 2025 VA examiner opined that the Veteran's MDD was at least as likely as not proximately due to or the result of his service-connected hearing loss and tinnitus. The examiner reasoned that tinnitus interfered with the quantity and quality of his sleep and that his difficulty hearing led to more isolation, making him feel more depressed.
- Claimed conditions
- anxiety disorder, panic disorder, military related chronic other specified trauma-and stressor-related disorder (subclinical PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder, unspecified depressive disorder, major depressive disorder with anxious distress
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 2, 2026
- Citation
- A26018437
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 A26018437.
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 Veteran's claim for service connection for hypertension and increased rating for anxiety disorder have been denied. The Board found that there is no evidence of a current disability meeting the criteria for hypertension, and the Veteran's anxiety disorder does not meet the criteria for a higher rating.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected PTSD, major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, insomnia and alcohol use disorder caused his sleep apnea.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for back pain and neck pain, finding no current disability. The claim for Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is remanded due to inadequate consideration of all potential exposures.,The claim for an acquired psychiatric disability (PTSD) is also remanded due to a lack of development of the Veteran's therapist's records.
- Granted
The Veteran's anxiety and depressive disorders were rated at a 70 percent disability rating effective May 6, 2015.,Effective May 6, 2015, the Veteran was granted an earlier effective date for DEA benefits.
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