Citation Nr: 21012975 Decision Date: 03/08/21 Archive Date: 03/08/21 DOCKET NO. 07-25 445 DATE: March 8, 2021 REMANDED Entitlement to service connection for acquired psychiatric disorder, to include schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran had active service with the United States Coast Guard from June 1987 to September 1987 and from May 15, 1988 to May 25, 1988. She did not have 90 days of active service. In May 2016 and April 2020, the Veteran testified at a videoconference Board hearing and a virtual Board hearing, respectively, before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge. Transcripts of those hearings are of record. Entitlement to service connection for acquired psychiatric disorder, to include schizophrenia and PTSD. In its December 2017 decision, the Board denied this claim. Upon the Veteran’s appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (the Court), the Court in its June 2019 memorandum decision found the Board provided an inadequate statement of reasons or bases for relying on the October 2012 VA examination, as the Court concluded that the October 2012 VA examiner wrongly believes that schizophrenia is a personality disorder and therefore not eligible for service connection. VA regulations have assigned to schizophrenia Diagnostic Code 9201, making the rating criteria under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders applicable to that disease/disorder. 38 C.F.R. § 4.130. The Court vacated the decision and remanded the claim to the Board to obtain a medical examination which is consistent with VA regulations or to explain why such an examination is not necessary. VA recognizes schizophrenia as an acquired psychiatric disorder. Accordingly, the Board remands for a new VA examination and opinions. The matters are REMANDED for the following action: 1. Contact the Veteran and/or her representative for information pertaining to any current treatment for any 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 her 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 conducted by a VA examiner other than the October 2012 VA examiner with an appropriate specialty for producing findings for any identified psychiatric disorders, to include schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 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 first requested to provide a diagnosis and findings as to the particular psychiatric disorder(s) afflicting the Veteran. The examiner’s attention is next directed to the following: The examiner is requested to review the October 2012 VA examination and to note that, although the October 2012 VA examiner concluded that schizophrenia is a genetic/biological based disorder and is not etiologically caused by any stressors or “environmental insults,” schizophrenia nonetheless is a disorder to which VA regulations have assigned Diagnostic Code 9201, making the rating criteria under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders applicable to that disease/disorder and it therefore eligible for service connection. The examiner is requested to review the February 2016 psychiatric evaluation report of Dr. O.A. and to note that, although Dr. O.A. concludes that, “[t]herefore, [the Veteran’s] schizophrenia is conclusively service-connected by virtue of timing and substantiated by objective records,” it appears from the record that the Veteran received the first diagnosis of schizophrenia in December 1987, approximately 2 to 3 months after her separation from her first period of active service. The examiner is next requested to render opinions addressing the following: (a.) 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 the initial manifestation an acquired psychiatric disorder, to include schizophrenia or PTSD, was INCURRED DURING OR CONTEMPORANEOUS TO the exact dates of the Veteran’s active service. (b) 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 schizophrenia or PTSD is CAUSED by an event, injury or illness during active service. The opinions 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 requested to comment in the rationale on all relevant opinions in the record. The examiner is further requested to acknowledge, address, consider, and discuss the Veteran’s testimony in both the May 23, 2016 videoconference Board hearing and the April 20, 2020 virtual Board hearing, as well as all lay statements of the Veteran, her 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 testimony and lay evidence of the Veteran and others will be deemed insufficient for the purposes of VA adjudication. Please reconcile any opinion entered with the other evidence on file, explaining that with which you may agree and that with which you may disagree and explain why. 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.