Citation Nr: 18149146 Decision Date: 11/08/18 Archive Date: 11/08/18 DOCKET NO. 15-31 623 DATE: November 8, 2018 ORDER The claim for entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include major depressive disorder with dysthymic disorder and insomnia, is granted. FINDING OF FACT The evidence of record is in equipoise as to whether the Veteran’s acquired psychiatric disability, to include major depressive disorder with dysthymic disorder and insomnia, is etiologically related to his service-connected left foot disability. CONCLUSION OF LAW Resolving all reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the criteria for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disability, to include major depressive disorder with dysthymic disorder and insomnia, have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1110, 5107 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.310 (2018). REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from January 1971 to December 1972. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a January 2015 rating decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Muskogee, Oklahoma (Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ). The Veteran testified at an October 2018 Board hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge. As a full grant of the benefits sought on appeal is apparent, the Board may proceed to adjudicate this claim under the One Touch Program which allows adjudication before the hearing transcript is prepared and attached to the record. The claim for entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include major depressive disorder with dysthymic disorder and insomnia, is granted. The Veteran contends he has a current acquired psychiatric disability that is related to service-connected disabilities. A review of the claims file indicates the Veteran is service-connected for several orthopedic disabilities, as well as hearing loss and tinnitus. Generally, service connection may be granted for a disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in, or aggravated by, active military service. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(a). To establish service connection, there must be competent evidence of: (1) the current existence of the disability for which service connection is being claimed; (2) a disease contracted, an injury suffered, or an event witnessed or experienced in active service; and (3) a nexus or connection between the disease, injury, or event in service and the current disability. Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163 (2004). Service connection may be granted, on a secondary basis, for a disability that is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury. 38 C.F.R. § 3.310. Although a December 2014 examining VA psychiatrist determined the Veteran did not meet the criteria for a current psychiatric diagnosis, an earlier October 2014 private clinical psychologist detailed the Veteran’s symptoms of lack of enjoyment, mood variability, irritability, anger, attention and concentration difficulties, social avoidance, sleep issues, and lack of energy. Given these findings, the private clinical psychologist diagnosed the Veteran with major depressive disorder, social phobia, dysthymic disorder, and chronic insomnia. See October 2014 private psychological examination report. Therefore, the Veteran has a current diagnosis of an acquired psychiatric disability. See McLain v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 319 (2007) (holding that the requirement of current disability is satisfied when the claimant has the disability at the time the claim for VA disability compensation is filed or during the pendency of the claim and that a claimant may be granted service connection even though the disability resolves prior to VA’s adjudication of the claim); Romanowsky v. Shinseki, 26 Vet. App. 289 (2013). Moreover, the private clinical psychologist attributed the Veteran’s psychological difficulties, in part, to the Veteran’s service-connected left foot disability. Specifically, the psychologist indicated the Veteran’s symptoms manifested due to chronic pain stemming from fibrous ankylosis of the first metatarsophalangeal joint of the left foot. See 38 C.F.R. § 3.310(a). (continued on next page) In sum, based on the totality of the evidence and affording the Veteran the benefit of all reasonable doubt, the Board finds that the Veteran’s acquired psychiatric condition, to include major depressive disorder with dysthymic disorder and insomnia, is causally related to his service-connected left foot disability. See Wise v. Shinseki, 26 Vet. App. 517, 531 (2014) (“By requiring only an ‘approximate balance of positive and negative evidence’..., the nation, ‘in recognition of our debt to our veterans,’ has ‘taken upon itself the risk of error’ in awarding... benefits”). T. MAINELLI Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD N. Rasool