Citation Nr: 21005448
Decision Date: 02/01/21	Archive Date: 02/01/21

DOCKET NO. 181023-702
DATE: February 1, 2021

REMANDED

Entitlement to service connection for a psychiatric disability, to include posttraumatic stress disorder, is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from May 1978 to May 1998.

A November 2019 Board decision denied entitlement to service connection for a psychiatric disability, to include substance abuse, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  The Veteran appealed the Board's decision to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.  In an August 2020 Order, the Court granted a Joint Motion for Partial Remand, vacating the Board's November 2019 decision as to the claim for service connection for a psychiatric disability, and remanded the matter to the Board for actions consistent with the Joint Motion.

Entitlement to service connection for a psychiatric disability is remanded.

In the August 2020 Joint Motion, the parties agreed that the Board did not ensure substantially compliance with earlier remand instructions.  The Court explained that “[i]n July 2017, the Board remanded the claim and ordered VA to provide [the Veteran] with a new examination, instructing the examiner to consider [the Veteran’s] suicide attempts… The evidence shows that [the Veteran] reported two suicide gestures during basic training and a suicide attempt while on leave… But the 2018 examiner did not discuss the two suicide gestures in service; the examiner only addressed the one attempt afterward… Accordingly, remand is warranted for the Board to provide [the Veteran] with an examination that substantially complies with its July 2017 remand instructions, to include adequate consideration of [the Veteran’s] reported suicide attempts.”

To comply with the requests in the Joint Motion, remand is necessary for a VA examination.  McLendon v. Nicholson, 20 Vet. App. 79 (2006).

The matter is REMANDED for the following action:

Schedule the Veteran for a VA examination to determine the nature and etiology of any psychiatric disability.  The examiner must review the claims file, and a complete history should be elicited directly from the Veteran.  Any tests and studies deemed necessary by the examiner should be conducted.  All findings should be reported in detail.  The examiner should identify any pertinent pathology found and should diagnose all psychiatric disabilities found.  The examiner should address the following: 

Is at least as likely as not (50 percent probability or greater) that any identified psychiatric disability had its onset during active service or is related to any event during service.  The examiner must consider and discuss the Veteran’s lay and testimony statements regarding a 1968 in-service personal assault.  The examiner must consider and address the evidence which shows that the Veteran made two suicidal attempts involving overdoses of aspirin while in basic training and another suicide attempt by ingesting Pentobarbital while on a leave.  The examiner should specifically opine whether those actions represented the presence of a psychiatric disability during service.  If a psychiatric disability is attributed to another etiology, the examiner must explain why the other etiology is more likely.  A thorough rationale for all opinions expressed must be provided.  

 

Harvey P. Roberts

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	Department of Veterans Affairs

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.