Citation Nr: 18147194 Decision Date: 11/02/18 Archive Date: 11/02/18 DOCKET NO. 15-21 798 DATE: November 2, 2018 ORDER Service connection for schizophrenia, to include generalized anxiety disorder, claimed as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran has experienced psychiatric symptoms, symptoms diagnosed during the appeal as schizophrenia, undifferentiated from generalized anxiety disorder, continuously since service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for schizophrenia, to include generalized anxiety disorder, claimed as PTSD, have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1110, 1112, 1131, 1133, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303, 3.307, 3.309, 3.384. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from January 1988 to October 1991. The Veteran testified at a Travel Board hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) in October 2018. Entitlement to service connection for schizophrenia, to include generalized anxiety disorder, claimed as PTSD. Service connection will be granted for a disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by active service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). Service connection can be demonstrated for a disease diagnosed after service when all of the evidence, including that pertinent to service, establishes that the disease was incurred in service. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (d). In order to establish service connection, the evidence must generally show: (1) the existence of a present disability; (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship between the present disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated during service. Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004); Caluza v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 498, 506 (1995). For purposes of 3.303(b), where the Veteran asserts entitlement to a chronic condition but there is insufficient evidence of a diagnosis in service, the Veteran can establish service connection by demonstrating a continuity of symptomatology since service, but only if the chronic disease is listed under 38 C.F.R. § 3.309 (a). Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331, 1337-39 (Fed. Cir. 2013). Psychosis, to include schizophrenia, is listed as such chronic conditions under 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.309 (a), 3.384. Such may also be presumed to have been incurred in or aggravated by service if it becomes manifest to a compensable degree within one year of discharge from service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1112, 1131, 1133; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309. A layperson is competent to report on the onset and continuity of his current symptomatology. See Layno v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 465, 470 (1994) (a Veteran is competent to report on that of which he or she has personal knowledge). In determining whether service connection is warranted for a disability, VA is responsible for determining whether the evidence supports the claim or is in relative equipoise, with the appellant prevailing in either event, or whether a preponderance of the evidence is against the claim, in which case the claim is denied. 38 U.S.C. § 5107; Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49 (1990). The Veteran’s service personnel records dated in December 1990 indicate that she was stationed in an imminent danger pay area in Southwest Asia. Her service treatment records include report of her July 1991 service separation examination indicating that she complained of a history of depression or excessive worry, loss of memory or amnesia, and nervous trouble. In a June 2013 letter, the Veteran’s VA psychiatric treatment team reported that the Veteran vividly remembers getting caught in very bad sandstorms during service and reports that she has never been same. They noted the Veteran’s report that when she first left service, she remembers immediately feeling anxious and did not want to be around people; leading to staying inside much of time. They provided a recitation of her treatment history, noting her 1999 reports of insomnia accompanied by psychotic symptoms, including thinking someone was trying to inject her with poison that made her skin burn. They noted that the Veteran first sought VA treatment for her symptoms in 1999, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia, paranoid type, and generalized anxiety disorder. They attributed the Veteran’s diagnoses to service. On VA examination in June 2014, the examiner reported that the Veteran did not meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD and instead diagnosed the Veteran with schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder. The Veteran reported that she was in a potentially lethal situation during service, when she was caught in a sandstorm and had to kneel and cover her face so she would not inhale sand. She also reported that her tent fell in on her twice, without injury. The examiner did not render an etiological opinion as to the Veteran’s schizophrenia and generalized anxiety disorder. The examiner did not report that there was a differentiation between the symptoms attributed to the Veteran’s diagnosed schizophrenia and her generalized anxiety disorder. In her September 2014 Notice of Disagreement (NOD), the Veteran asserted that she began to experience psychiatric symptoms after service, difficulty sleeping and a constant fear of being followed. She reported that she was caught in sandstorms during service and had to stay in fox holes and experienced great difficulty, fearing that they would cave in on her. She reported that she never took her symptoms seriously nor reported them, unaware of the gravity of the symptoms; and reported that such worsened within the year after separation from service, in 1992. As a student at that time, she reported that she experienced a decline in the ability to communicate, reason, retain information, and focus, and that she forgot names and places. She reported that she sought treatment as a student in 1996 and was unable to keep appointments for testing and tried to cope with her symptoms until 1999 when she sought treatment again and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and anxiety, the results of PTSD from service. The Veteran is competent to report her in-service experiences and is competent to report her post-service psychiatric symptoms. While she has not cited her in-service symptoms in statements dated during the course of the appeal, it is significant that during her July 1991 service separation examination, she complained of a history of depression or excessive worry, loss of memory or amnesia, and nervous trouble. While her private treatment records demonstrating her reported psychiatric symptoms or treatment are not of record, and while it appears that the RO has not associated the Veteran’s complete VA treatment records with the claims file, specifically, the VA treatment records dated beginning in 1999 demonstrating psychiatric treatment, it is significant that her VA psychiatric treatment team included her VA treatment history in the June 2013 statement and appear to have relied on such in their diagnosis and treatment plan. There is no evidence that the Veteran is not credible in this regard. Layno, 6 Vet. App. 465, 470. In sum, based on the above, of record is probative evidence of psychiatric symptoms during and since service, and a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a chronic condition under 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.309 (a), 3.384. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1110, 1112, 1131, 1133; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309, 3.384; Walker, 708 F.3d 1331, at 1337-39. The Board thus finds that service connection for schizophrenia, to include generalized anxiety disorder, claimed as PTSD, is warranted. 38 U.S.C. § 5107; Gilbert, 1 Vet. App. 49 (1990). P.M. DILORENZO Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD M. Purdum