Depression Secondary Too Degenerative Disk Disease

[rgero311975]

Well i am trying to get service connected depression due to my back which is rated at 40% as of march 1,2009 which was previously rated at 20%.. Well my question is this...I was stabed and almost killed by someone that broke into my house about 4 years ago so i have pstd and depression and panic attacks..the VA know this ....i recieve my medication and have been treat by va doctor and outside dr for these conditions........ My back has gotten worse as you can see my rating just went up recently.... Since I have allready been diagnosed with depression not connected to serve can and how and what should i do.......I mean my back limits me physically and emotionally ...sex, daily activity,mood,personal realtionships,.....yes i was depressed before but my back limits me and it affects me the most..and the pain meds make me depressed...

Thank you ..this site has gave me hope and thank god for all of you guys...rentalguy1 you have a lot of good post ....

[sailor man]

The last week of April. 2009, I had a very similar claim denied for depression secondary to Chrohns disease as well as back problems. I was rated at 60 percent combined. The back issue was rated at 30 percent and Chrohns was 40 percent. Sorry I can't recall the exact rating numbers.

I had years of psych medication management and counseling since 1986 discharge.

I had medical and psch appointment histories with dates of appt, doctor etc going back 10 or more years to 2002 when my SCD was increased to the 60 percent.

If they can't see the nexus, they are blind. I'm going to submit some more doc's etc very soon

[rgero311975]

yea i know wait game its just i know they will try to use stabbing thing even though my back was hur 14 years ago..and staqbbing 5 years ago... i guess from now on when i see every dr i going to focus on my depression due to my back....

just hard to understand bc my back was hurt in 1994 which i am servcie connected..my stabbbing in 2003 ...which i never talked about my depression till after stabbing but my back got worse

[rgero311975]

The last week of April. 2009, I had a very similar claim denied for depression secondary to Chrohns disease as well as back problems. I was rated at 60 percent combined. The back issue was rated at 30 percent and Chrohns was 40 percent. Sorry I can't recall the exact rating numbers.

I had years of psych medication management and counseling since 1986 discharge.

I had medical and psch appointment histories with dates of appt, doctor etc going back 10 or more years to 2002 when my SCD was increased to the 60 percent.

If they can't see the nexus, they are blind. I'm going to submit some more doc's etc very soon

do u mean my nexus or your ..iam confused ...lol... i know my back pain is older than my stabbing ...i am going to a outside dr bc my va doctor see me like every 6 months and he just so focused on my stabbing and it hard to say hey im more depressed from back can you right that down..lol i know my back kills me and is my main soource of my depression........

[purple]

I'm going to play devil's advocate....I do that alot on here.

Yes, the VA is more than likely going to say that your depression is due to your stabbing incident because, as you said, you never sought any mental health care for depression relating to your back pain initially; but you did seek mental health care after the stabbing...therefore; there's a direct link to the stabbing. The VA will most likely connect those dots.

Also, on another thread you are filing a claim for migraines secondary to this condition as well (I think)....can you file for more than one secondary condition at a time?

I honestly don't know...I'm just asking.

Just be prepared...that's all I'm saying.

[rentalguy1]

I am inclined to agree with all the other posters on here. This will be a uphill battle all the way. Before you even consider filing a claim, you really need to do some serious ground work. If you want to win at the RO level, you should consider paying for a IMO before filing. A person can have multiple mental disorders simeltaneously. It will be up tp you to prove that the stabbing caused PTSD, abd that the back problems have caused a mood disorder due to a general medical condition. You need to research the symptomology of both conditions and then discuss it with a IMO doctor. Once you have all of the ground work laid, then you can file a claim for mood disorder secondary to your service connected back condition.

[purple]

i'm confused....there's two of these topics....