C&p Exam Favorable?

[silke]

Thanks for all yur help....

My husband was diagnosed by the air force with adjustment disorder with depressed mood and avoidant personality traits in 1993 after a sudden character change ( got arrested twice, art 15, violent behavior, problems at work)...He got out on a voluntary separation, honorably.

with 6 months of separation he became schizophrenic, he refused treatment and denied any problem...lack of insight and judgement is a typical symptom of schizophrenia, and with the mental health laws in place, he could not be forced into treatment or meds.

In 2006 i was able to stage a intervention and get him into treatment and on meds at a county clinic...in 2007 he started going to the va clinic and the doctor there diagnosed him with p.schizophrenia, he suggested we apply for ssd and va comp.

He got ssd within six months and last year we applied for va comp......we had a c&p exam last week...i went with him (his gaf is 35 and needs help to communicate)..pretty easy exam and at the end the doctor said she believes that his condition began in the service....essentially the adjustment do eventually became schizophrenia.

How much weight does the doctors opinion at the c&p exam hold for a favorable outcome???

[silke]

From my research...adjustment disorders are compensable...generally in the 10-30% range. I saw that they changed that in 96. Citation Nr: 0926541 is a good example.

The psychologist (MD), said the axis I and the axis II (avoidant personality traits), are symptoms of a prodromal phase of shizophrenia, especially when she got a rundown of his entire military history. He had two achievement medals, a good conduct medal, was selected for NCO leadership school before he was even an nco, had 45 credits toward a college degree, campaign medal for op. desert storm/shield, the highest ratings on his enlisted performance reports and had an intention of making the military a career. After five years of exemplary service his mental meltdown began.....and now he cant even subtract 7 from a 100......they had some gall calling this a personality disorder, your personality is well developed before military service age......ohhh, if only I knew back then what I know now,,,,heads would be rolling..LOL....

Sorry if it seems like im ranting and raging, I just want to see him get what he has deserved...thank you all for listening.

[Joe Johansen]

From my research...adjustment disorders are compensable...generally in the 10-30% range. I saw that they changed that in 96. Citation Nr: 0926541 is a good example.

The psychologist (MD), said the axis I and the axis II (avoidant personality traits), are symptoms of a prodromal phase of shizophrenia, especially when she got a rundown of his entire military history. He had two achievement medals, a good conduct medal, was selected for NCO leadership school before he was even an nco, had 45 credits toward a college degree, campaign medal for op. desert storm/shield, the highest ratings on his enlisted performance reports and had an intention of making the military a career. After five years of exemplary service his mental meltdown began.....and now he cant even subtract 7 from a 100......they had some gall calling this a personality disorder, your personality is well developed before military service age......ohhh, if only I knew back then what I know now,,,,heads would be rolling..LOL....

Sorry if it seems like im ranting and raging, I just want to see him get what he has deserved...thank you all for listening.

Sounds like he got a good exam. The fact that she explained that the symptoms he had in service were symptoms of the prodromal (early) phase of schizophrenia is very good.

Schizophrenia is often compensated at 100% because it's such a debilitating illness.

Sorry you're having to go through all this. I admire your pluck and determination!

Best Regards,

Joe

[john999]

You know I was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia within one year of discharge in 1971. I got 10% rating. The VA just ignored my evidence and relied on evidence of a worker in a mental ward that said I got on well with other mental patients. This was the bad old days and this is the VA in its glory. They did not even send me appeal rights. I did not even know I could appeal and that is not grounds for a CUE. I still have a CUE but not on duty to assist.

[silke]

hello all, just an update....its been a month now since the c&p and havent received a copy yet....got a letter from the va and it said it is processing our request for the record and it will be sent within 30 days......hmmmmm...they told us two weeks ago it went to the ratings department and would take 16-21 days...so its possible we could have a rating before we get a copy of the c&p...LOL...not gonna happen of course.....i just wish they were a bit more honest with their time estimations.....will hopefully post report soon.......thanks all

[silke]

Got it...with permission. Iptomsm just gonna include opinion and rationale w\gaf:

OPINION: In my opinion, the veteran suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and secondary depression NOS. His current condition is a continuation of symptoms first treated while he was in military service and diagnosed at that time as an adjustment disorder with depressed mood. Because I believe the current condition is a continuation of symptoms first evidenced during military service, I would say that the current disorder is most likely caused by or a result of military service.

RATIONALE FOR OPINION GIVEN: In my opinion, the veteran was experiencing predomal symptoms of schizophrenia while he was still in military service. Typically, people who develop schizophrenia have a 1-2 year period when they begin to have changes in mood and coping ability but before they experience full-blown hallucinations. The military note indicates a diagnoses of adjustment disorder with anxiety and avoidant personality traits. This would be a typical diagnoses of symptoms that occur in the predomal stage of schizophrenia. It is only in retrospect that they can be recognized as early symptoms of the disorder. The veteran indicates that he was starting to have some changes in his personality and ability to cope and that he initially refused treatment for the symptoms when he was discharged. When symptoms continued to worsen, he was hosptialized and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. This course of symptoms and delays in getting diagnosed and treated is typical for the disorder. He has a family history of schizophrenia and may have been predisposed to develop the disorder, but it was the stress of military stress that apparently provoked his first symptoms and the disease progressed from that point on.

xxxx xxxxxxxx

Psychologist

GAF: 35

What do you's guys thing!

[carlie]

This is sounding like a winner to me.

JMHO