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Board of Veterans' Appeals · Legacy series

Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability is remanded.

January 30, 2026Citation Nr. 26001462Docket 14-09 685va.gov source

  • service connection for an acquired psychiatric disabilityRemanded
  • total disability rating for individual unemployability (TDIU)Remanded
DecisionAnalysis

Board reasoning

The Board determined that an independent medical expert opinion is required to decide the service connection claim for an acquired psychiatric disorder due to medical complexity and inconsistent prior examinations, and remanded the TDIU issue as intertwined with the service-connection matter. It emphasized the need to follow remand directives and obtain an advisory IME, reviewing the full record, including August 1981 head injury records and private opinions, before issuing a decision.

Issues

  • service connection for an acquired psychiatric disabilityRemanded
  • total disability rating for individual unemployability (TDIU)Remanded

Authorities

  • Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268Board cited as requiring substantial compliance with remand orders.
  • D'Aries v. Peake, 22 Vet. App. 97Board cites need for substantial compliance with remand directives.
  • Nieves-Rodriguez v. Peake, 22 Vet. App. 295Board notes evaluation of medical opinions depends on accurate factual predicate.
  • Reonal v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 458Board cites evaluating medical opinions for reliability.

Extracted with gpt-5-nano-2025-08-07. Citations are kept only when they appear in the decision text.