Gulf War illness secondary to depression or anxiety

In the Board decisions we have indexed since 2019, Gulf War illness appeared as secondary to depression or anxiety in 64 issues. The Board granted 1, denied 6, and sent 57 back for more work. Of the ones it decided, it granted 14 percent.

Every decision counted here is an appeal. The regional office decided the claim first, the veteran disagreed, and the Board is the next step after that. These are not the odds on a first claim.

Since 2019

Across every year we have indexed, that is 121 issues, and 83 percent sent back for more work.

What a secondary claim needs

In a secondary claim, the Board reads for three things. A diagnosis of the second condition. A first condition that is already service connected. And a medical opinion that says the first condition led to the second, or made it worse, and explains why. The rule itself is shorter than that. Here is the part that matters.

… disability which is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury shall be service connected.

38 CFR 3.310(a), from the middle of its first sentence

Proximately due to means the first condition led to the second. The other route is aggravation, where the first condition made the second worse. The rule for that route is in the next paragraph of the same section, and it says increase in severity.

Any increase in severity of a nonservice-connected disease or injury that is proximately due to or the result of a service-connected disease or injury, and not due to the natural progress of the nonservice-connected disease, will be service connected.

38 CFR 3.310(b), first sentence

That paragraph goes on to say the VA will not concede aggravation without a baseline. A baseline is medical evidence of how bad the second condition was before the first one started making it worse, or the earliest record after that and before the evidence of how bad it is now. If you claim aggravation, find the earliest record you have of the second condition, from either window. Without a baseline from one of them, the VA will not concede aggravation. The other route, that the first condition led to the second, does not need a baseline.

A remand is not a yes or a no. The Board sends the claim back to the regional office for more work, such as a new exam or a record that was not in the file. The claim is decided again later, and that later decision is a separate document.

Decisions on these claims

The newest decision we could link for these claims is not recent. The counts above cover every year we indexed.

• September 15, 2021Denied

  Entitlement to service connection for a prostate disability, to include as an undiagnosed illness due to service in the Persian Gulf War and/or as secondary to service-connected major depressive…

  Read the decision at VA.gov
• June 23, 2021Denied

  Entitlement to service connection for a seizure disorder with memory loss, to include as due to an undiagnosed illness and as secondary to service-connected psychiatric disorder

  Read the decision at VA.gov
• July 30, 2020Granted

  Entitlement to service connection for a migraine headache disability, to include as due to environmental hazards, undiagnosed illness or medically unexplained chronic multi-symptom illness (MUCMI)…

  Read the decision at VA.gov
• March 12, 2018Granted

  Entitlement to service connection for chronic fatigue syndrome, to include as due to an undiagnosed illness and/or as secondary to service connected adjustment disorder with depressed mood.

  Read the decision at VA.gov
• October 2, 2013Granted

  Entitlement to service connection for erectile dysfunction, claimed as an undiagnosed illness, to include secondary to a depressive disorder.

  Read the decision at VA.gov