Another Question And Observation On My Cue Claim

[Rockhound 0]

Cue questions tucked away in it's own little space doesn't seem to get the imput as it did when it was on the open forum page, but here goes another question and observation in my ongoing CUE Claim I am trying to develope and meet all the requirements of CUE.

(1) I did have a SCable condition while in service, rated by the military at the time of discharge to be 0%, even though the residual effects at the time represented at least 10% disableing.

(2) The military rated the condition as being in remission with a specific IDC (DC) 2954, which translated to a DSM (DC) 9205, which is a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder.

Definition

Schizoaffective disorder is a mental illness that shares the psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia and the mood disturbances of depression or bipolar disorder.

Description

The term schizoaffective disorder was first used in the 1930s to describe patients with acute psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions along with disturbed mood. These patients tended to function well before becoming psychotic; their psychotic symptoms lasted relatively briefly; and they tended to do well afterward. Over the years, however, the term schizoaffective disorder has been applied to a variety of patient groups.

"The current definition contained in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) recognizes patients with schizoaffective disorder as those whose mood symptoms are sufficiently severe to warrant a diagnosis of depression or other full-blown mood disorder and whose mood symptoms overlap at some period with psychotic symptoms that satisfy the diagnosis of schizophrenia (e.g. hallucinations, delusions, or thought process disorder)."

According to this criteria and the fact that I am currently diagnosed with major chronic depression and have been continually treated for same for the past six years, It begs me to wonder why the Dr's at the VA are relunctant to diagnose me now with the same type of Schizophrenia that resulted in my discharge 35 plus years ago.

It also brings up the question as to what evidence at the time of the VA C&P examination was so compeling, that the VA Rater stated as fact, the Examiner said the schizoaffective disorder diagnoses was in error and the diagnosis that the Examiner made was a correction of it.

If their is no evidence to support this assertion, then would it be CUE that the evidence was not evident at the time? Some say the evidence may have been viewed or weighed differently, but if their is no supporting statement from the examiner that found the original diagnosis was made in error and that his was a correction of it, and their is no supporting evidence, such as independant tests, examinations, observations to rebut the original diagnosis, how could he weigh one opinion against the original opinion which did have all these supporting elliments?

Since the medical board upon my discharge stated that I would have moderate impairment to social and industrial adaptability, that this problem was probably permanent, had depression as a result of the episode and having not show that the depression had resolved at the time of discharge, and other factors such that the Dr's felt it was best I be transfered to a VA hospital to await discharge from the service and to get additional treatment and medication if found necessary.

Anyway, the residual effects in of themselves demonstrate at least a 10% disability meeting the outcome base definition. Appearing then that I only have to show a current Diagnosis that relates to the aspects of the original diagnosis.

I'm getting more and more confused. I sure could use someone who doesn't have the mental and congnitive problems I currently have to tell me what I can do now, spending the least amount of money, to prove my original diagnosis and to prove the VARO Rater commited outright CUE when he came to his unsupported medical opinion that a diagnosis change had been made, when in fact, as supported by the evidence, actually did not happen at all.

Rockhound

Edited October 24, 2008 by Rockhound

[Angela 1]

Rockhound,

I agree with you, you were shafted. I read another decision which may be helpful to you in getting service connected. This decision is for earlier effective date but describes the hoops the vet had to go through to get service connected in the first place. I'll look through the CAVC cases and see if I can find the history on this one.

Conley v Peake Fed Circuit Sep 2008

[Rockhound 0]

Thanks Angela: This is helpfull in that it points out my whole problem in proving my CUE claim. First I have to show how the personality disorder that was diagnosed by the VA C&P Examiner is the same as the current neuropsychiatric tests suggest was due to the TBI that caused an organic personality syndrome and the causeal link between the two. Which would probably be the depression episodes that continued to plague me up to now, becoming a chronic major depression disorder or as the neuropsychiatric tests indicated, an organic depression disorder.

I've asked for a neurological consult for further evaluations as a result of these tests, so that I can further document my TBI as the cause of my personality disorder and depression then and my organic personality syndrome and organic depression disorder now. It may well take a month or two for an appointment, but time is still in my favor.

Rockhound Rider

[Wings 17]

Thanks Angela: This is helpfull in that it points out my whole problem in proving my CUE claim. First I have to show how the personality disorder that was diagnosed by the VA C&P Examiner is the same as the current neuropsychiatric tests suggest was due to the TBI that caused an organic personality syndrome and the causeal link between the two. Which would probably be the depression episodes that continued to plague me up to now, becoming a chronic major depression disorder or as the neuropsychiatric tests indicated, an organic depression disorder.

I've asked for a neurological consult for further evaluations as a result of these tests, so that I can further document my TBI as the cause of my personality disorder and depression then and my organic personality syndrome and organic depression disorder now. It may well take a month or two for an appointment, but time is still in my favor.

Rockhound Rider B)

You're on a roll! Keep fighting, and keep those appointments! It will help your depression to go forward with your claims, give it all you have, and then some. ~Wings

[Rockhound 0]

Another observation on my question of CUE in my claim.

After reading in another post that Berta made a comment in. She referenced how the VARO fails at time to refer to evidence that helps support Veterans' claims. I went back over my original claim once again to see what they listed in their statement of the case. They did refer to my US Navy Medical Board Summery, but they made an erroneous statement that stated that my adnormal behavior was alternatively diagnosable as a psychosis or personality disorder, when in fact the summery made no such differentiation or statement of fact. They stated that I had an acute schizophrenic episode, that was in remission. Using the DC 9205 which is a schizoaffective disorder, not a personality disorder. They made it sound as if the summery report said this, when this is something the rater inserted and stated.

I've repeatedly stated that the personality disorder never intered the picture until 9 months after the psychotic episode that a VA Examiner made a diagnosis of a personality disorder, but he never said, stated, and/or implied it was a correction or the prior diagnosis of the psychotic spisode. He did howeve state that he could not fully support a definite diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Had the diagnosis of the Schizoaffective disorder had been SC, the current statement that I suffered from a moderate impairment to social and industrial adaptability would have been sufficient to award a dissabiltiy of at least 10% at that time, but this aspect of the claim was never discussed or acted upon in the decision since the rater making his own medical assumption that a diagnosis change had been made, that the original diagnosis was found to be in error and the personality disorder was a correction for it.

Without CUE I am force to sit and stew over this injustice all because I can not afford an adequate IMO to support my claim.

I don't believe people become paranoid becasue they have a mental problem, I think people are made to be paranoid by not justly treating them over a period of time. It kind of becomes a part of their mind set, just like the way they feel a personality disoder develops over time.

I just hope my paranoia doesn't get so bad that I think they are trying to kill me, that I must feel I need to defend myself first. Time for another chill pill.

I fear one of these days they will have increased my meds to the point that I can no longer stand to take them, like the characters on TV crime dramas. They get to the point they prefer living without the pills and being psychotic most of the time to living in a fog, as if a zombie in some voodoo scary movie.

How do you fight the VA when you don't have access to the weapons to do so?

Rockhound Rider

Edited October 31, 2008 by Rockhound

[Angela 1]

Rockhound,

You said that "but they made an erroneous statement that stated that my adnormal behavior was alternatively diagnosable as a psychosis or personality disorder, when in fact the summery made no such differentiation or statement of fact."

If the decision says that that statement was in the summary when in fact it was not, then that is a "misstatement of fact about the evidence".

Here's a CAVC decision that might be helpful

CAVC 98-1801

[john999 974]

I think you should have gotten a diagnosis of residual schizophrenia. That means you had a episode and still have some residuals of it, but are not currently psychotic. You don't go from being psychotic to a personality disorder. Personality disorders are stable but maladaptive conditions. Prisons are full of PD's but they are never psychotic.