Citation Nr: 21028984 Decision Date: 05/12/21 Archive Date: 05/12/21 DOCKET NO. 18-12 504 DATE: May 12, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to a 100 percent rating for major depressive disorder (MDD) from July 19, 2016 is granted. REMANDED Entitlement to an effective date for MDD prior to July 19, 2016 is remanded. FINDING OF FACT From July 19, 2016 MDD was manifested with symptoms causing total occupational and social impairment. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for entitlement to a 100 percent rating for major depressive disorder from July 19, 2016 have been met. 38 U.S.C. § 1155; 38 C.F.R. § 4.1, 4.7, 4.130, DC 9434. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from April 1980 to October 1982. This appeal comes to the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) from October 2016 and June 2017 rating decisions of the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) regional office (RO). The Veteran timely appealed. The Veteran testified at a Board hearing with the undersigned in February 2021. Increased Ratings Disability evaluations are determined by the application of the VA's Schedule for Rating Disabilities (Rating Schedule), 38 C.F.R. Part 4. The percentage ratings in the Rating Schedule represent, as far as can be practicably determined, the average impairment in earning capacity resulting from diseases and injuries incurred or aggravated during military service and their residual conditions in civil occupations. 38 U.S.C. §1155; 38 C.F.R. §4.1. Where there is a question as to which of the two evaluations shall be applied, the higher evaluation will be assigned if the disability picture more nearly approximates the criteria required for that rating. Otherwise, the lower rating will be assigned. 38 C.F.R. §4.7. A rating of 70 percent is assigned where there is 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); and inability to establish and maintain effective relationships. Id. A 100 percent schedular evaluation contemplates total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name. Id. To adequately evaluate and assign the appropriate disability rating to the Veteran's service-connected psychiatric disability, the Board must analyze the evidence as a whole, including the enumerated factors listed in 38 C.F.R. § 4.130, DC 9411-9433. Mauerhan v. Principi, 16 Vet. App. 436 (2002). The symptoms listed in the rating schedule are not intended to constitute an exhaustive list, but rather serve as examples of the type and degree of the symptoms, or their effects, that would justify a particular rating. Id. The record supports that the Veteran's service-connected major depressive disorder symptoms were of the type and severity which would be expected to produce total occupational and social impairment. There is ample evidence that the Veteran is a persistent danger to himself. The Board has sympathetically considered all the evidence of record and resolves doubt in the Veteran's favor to find a 100 percent rating is warranted for the entire appeal period. REASONS FOR REMAND Regarding the claim of entitlement to an earlier effective date for major depressive disorder, in July 2017 the Veteran submitted a timely notice of disagreement with the June 2017 rating decision, but a statement of the case has not yet been issued. A remand is required for the AOJ to issue a statement of the case.38 C.F.R. § 20.200; Manlincon v. West, 12 Vet. App. 238, 240-41 (1999). The matters are REMANDED for the following action: 1. Send the Veteran and his representative a statement of the case that addresses the issue of entitlement to an earlier effective date for the service-connected major depressive disorder. If the Veteran perfects an appeal by submitting a timely VA Form 9, the issue should be returned to the Board for further appellate consideration. LAURA E. COLLINS Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board M. Brewer, 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.