Citation Nr: 18159889 Decision Date: 12/20/18 Archive Date: 12/20/18 DOCKET NO. 15-31 208A DATE: December 20, 2018 ORDER Entitlement to an increased disability rating in excess of 70 percent for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is denied. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran’s PTSD has not caused total social and occupational impairment. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for a rating in excess of 70 percent for the Veteran’s service-connected PTSD have not been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1155, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.159, 4.1, 4.7, 4.130, Diagnostic Code 9411. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran had active military service from May 1968 to April 1970. This appeal comes to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) on appeal from a May 2015 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO) in Muskogee, Oklahoma. By that rating action, the RO decreased the rating assigned to the service-connected PTSD from 70 to 50 percent, effective August 1, 2015. The Veteran appealed the RO’s reduction of the PTSD rating from 70 to 50 percent to the Board. By a September 2015 rating action, the RO restored the 70 percent rating to the service-connected PTSD, effective August 1, 2015---the date of the reduction. On his September 2015 VA Form 9, the Veteran requested a videoconference hearing before a Veteran’s Law Judge. In an October 2018 statement to the Board, the Veteran withdrew his hearing request. (see VA Form 22-4138, Statement in Support of Claim, received by VA in October 2018). Thus, the Board will proceed with its appellate review of the claim. The Veteran seeks an increased disability rating in excess of 70 percent for the service-connected PTSD. Under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders, a 70 percent evaluation is assigned when a psychiatric disability causes occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as: suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a work like setting); or an inability to establish and maintain effective relationships. Id. A 100 percent rating is assigned when a psychiatric disability causes total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of living (including maintenance of minimal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; or, memory loss for names of close relatives, occupation, or own name. Id. When rating a mental disorder, VA must consider the frequency, severity, and duration of the Veteran’s psychiatric symptoms, the length of remissions, and the Veteran’s capacity for adjustment during periods of remission. The rating agency must assign a rating based on all the evidence of record that bears on occupational and social impairment, rather than solely on the examiner’s assessment of the level of disability at the moment of the examination. When rating the level of disability from a mental disorder, the rating agency must consider the extent of social impairment, but cannot assign a rating solely on the basis of social impairment. 38 C.F.R. § 4.126. When determining the appropriate disability evaluation to assign, the Board’s primary consideration is the Veteran’s symptoms, but it must also make findings as to how those symptoms impact the Veteran’s occupational and social impairment. Vazquez-Claudio v. Shinseki, 713 F.3d 112, 118 (Fed. Cir. 2013); Mauerhan v. Principi, 16 Vet. App. 436, 442 (2002). Because the use of the term “such as” in the rating criteria demonstrates that the symptoms after that phrase are not intended to constitute an exhaustive list, the Board need not find the presence of all, most, or even some, of the enumerated symptoms to award a specific rating. Mauerhan, 16 Vet. App. at 442. Nevertheless, as all ratings in the general rating formula are also associated with objectively observable symptomatology and the plain language of the regulation makes it clear that the Veteran’s impairment must be “due to” those symptoms, a veteran may only qualify for a given disability by demonstrating the particular symptoms associated with that percentage, or others of similar severity, frequency, and duration. Vazquez-Claudio, 713 F.3d at 118. Here, the evidence of record including a VA examination report and VA treatment records have been reviewed but neither shows total social and total occupational impairment. For example, the Veteran has maintained some contact with children. He also made arrangements for his brother’s funeral. He has been noted to isolate with few friends, but the medical records stopped short of saying no friends. The Board does not wish to minimize the impairment caused by the Veteran’s PTSD, but a 70 percent rating contemplates an inability to establish and maintain effective relationships. Here, the Veteran has demonstrated at least some social functioning, and therefore he does not have total social impairment. Therefore, a rating in excess of 70 percent for PTSD is denied. MATTHEW W. BLACKWELDER Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD Carole Kammel, Counsel