Citation Nr: 21003057 Decision Date: 01/19/21 Archive Date: 01/19/21 DOCKET NO. 15-04 267A DATE: January 19, 2021 REMANDED Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, memory loss, diminished capacity, and any other psychiatric disorder appearing in the record, is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran had active service in the United States Army from June 1975 to May 1978. In March 2018, the Veteran testified at a Travel Board hearing before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge. A transcript of that hearing is of record. Entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include PTSD, schizophrenia, memory loss, diminished capacity, and any other psychiatric disorder appearing in the record. In its May 2019 decision, the Board denied the claim for entitlement to service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include PTSD, schizophrenia, memory loss, and diminishing capacity, as well as ten other claims. Upon appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (the Court), the Court vacated the Board’s denial of the above mental disorder claim and remanded it for further action consistent with the August 2020 Joint Motion for Partial Remand (JMPR), agreed on and submitted by the parties. The Board denied service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder for lack of evidence of nexus. However, the parties to the JMPR agreed that the Board erred by not addressing whether a VA examination or medical opinion is required as to the etiology of the Veteran’s acquired psychiatric disorders and remand is therefore necessary for the Board to provide an adequate statement of reasons or bases as to whether such an examination and/or opinion is required. Accordingly, although the Board found in its May 2019 decision on this claim that the post-service treatment record does not offer diagnoses for any of the psychiatric disorders which appear in the record until May 2000, more than twenty years after separation from active service, remand is now considered in order for a psychiatric professional to determine any etiological relationship to active service. The matter is REMANDED for the following action: 1. Contact the Veteran and/or his representative for information pertaining to any current treatment for a psychiatric disorder at any VA facility and by any private treatment provider. Obtain any records of the above treatments not yet associated with the claims file and associate them with the claims file. The assistance of the Veteran and/or his representative should be requested in obtaining any records of recent treatment as indicated. All attempts to obtain records should be documented in the claims file. 2. After all additional records have been obtained and associated with the claims file, but whether or not records are obtained, arrange for an examination by a VA examiner with an appropriate specialty for producing findings for psychiatric disorders. The complete electronic claims file must be made available to the examiner in conjunction with the examination. The examiner should detail all findings. The examiner is requested to render an opinion addressing the following: Whether it is at least as likely as not (a 50 percent or greater probability) or less likely than not (less than a 50 percent probability) that an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include PTSD, schizophrenia, memory loss, diminished capacity, and any other psychiatric disorder appearing in the record, is caused by an event, injury or illness during active service. The opinion rendered by the examiner must be accompanied by a rationale, by which conclusions are supported by references to and discussion of findings on examination, to clinical findings in the medical evidence of record and/or to accepted medical literature. The examiner is further requested to comment in the rationale on all relevant opinions in the record and to acknowledge, address, consider, and discuss all lay statements of the Veteran, most particularly, his testimony at the March 2018 Board hearing, as well as the Veteran’s reports to treatment providers, as they appear throughout the record, and any lay evidence of other persons, as it pertains to a psychiatric disorder. The Board urges the examiner to note that opinions rendered without addressing and discussing the lay evidence of the Veteran and others will be deemed insufficient for the purposes of VA adjudication. 3. After completing the above development and any other indicated development readjudicate the claim. If the benefits sought are not granted, provide the Veteran and his representative with a Supplemental Statement of the Case and allow an appropriate opportunity to respond before returning the case to the Board. MICHAEL D. LYON Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board P. Franke, Associate Counsel The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.