Letter From Md On Service Illness

[john6012]

A doctor I knew while in the military sent me a letter that states, "I had a degree of inappropriateness and lack of professional decorum, experiencing paranoid ideation and emotional upheavel ranging from joyfullness and elation to dispair accompanied by uncontrollable weeping at work and at home. It is my professional opinion that the individual has a long-standing history of somewhat debilitating clinical depression, manifested by a degree of paranoid ideation and bipolar features with significant mood fluctuations which interferred with his job performance. Unfortunately, due to the intense work atmosphere, the individual was neither identified as being impaired, nor was he properly treated for symptoms of his disorder. As a result, his judgement was degraded at times he was required to perform effectively in a highly important and taxing position. There is no doubt in my mind that the work environment contributed adversely to the individual's psychological condition.

In retrospect, I render the following minimal diagnosis: Clinical depression with paranoid and bipolar features.

I sent the letter to the regiuonal VA office with a short cover letter indicating I would like to reopen my rating file. My question is, is the letter adequate for them to take action and what would be the potential outcome? Do I need to take a letter to the C&P exam and hand it to the examiner? Thanks in advance, John

[Vike17]

John,

You said you wanted to re-open your claim. I assume this means in this instances that your claim was previuosly denied and the decision became final. In order to determine whether your evidence will re-open the claim or not depends on the reasons why denied the claimin the first place. In order to rre-open a previuosly denied claim, youmust submit "new and material" evidence, meaning evidence that VA was previuosly unaware of and did not have befere them at the time of their decision, and evidence that bare directly on the reason for the previuos denial. If you can post the reason for the prviuos denial, maybe I can shed some light on the subject.

Vike 17

[Objee]

John, you have a good start, but remember that there are three elements to a VA claim:

1. Something happened to you in service,

2. Symptoms of it are still happening to you right now,

3. You can connect the in-service event(s) directly with your present symptoms (known as

continuity of symptomatology).

If you want more than a 0% SC, you have to also show that your ability to earn an income

is reduced or eliminated by today's symptoms.

Ralph

A doctor I knew while in the military sent me a letter that states, "I had a degree of inappropriateness and lack of professional decorum, experiencing paranoid ideation and emotional upheavel ranging from joyfullness and elation to dispair accompanied by uncontrollable weeping at work and at home. It is my professional opinion that the individual has a long-standing history of somewhat debilitating clinical depression, manifested by a degree of paranoid ideation and bipolar features with significant mood fluctuations which interferred with his job performance. Unfortunately, due to the intense work atmosphere, the individual was neither identified as being impaired, nor was he properly treated for symptoms of his disorder. As a result, his judgement was degraded at times he was required to perform effectively in a highly important and taxing position. There is no doubt in my mind that the work environment contributed adversely to the individual's psychological condition.

In retrospect, I render the following minimal diagnosis: Clinical depression with paranoid and bipolar features.

I sent the letter to the regiuonal VA office with a short cover letter indicating I would like to reopen my rating file. My question is, is the letter adequate for them to take action and what would be the potential outcome? Do I need to take a letter to the C&P exam and hand it to the examiner? Thanks in advance, John

[john6012]

John,

You said you wanted to re-open your claim. I assume this means in this instances that your claim was previuosly denied and the decision became final. In order to determine whether your evidence will re-open the claim or not depends on the reasons why denied the claimin the first place. In order to rre-open a previuosly denied claim, youmust submit "new and material" evidence, meaning evidence that VA was previuosly unaware of and did not have befere them at the time of their decision, and evidence that bare directly on the reason for the previuos denial. If you can post the reason for the prviuos denial, maybe I can shed some light on the subject.

Vike 17

Actually, this is a new item. You see, there is a stigma attached to anything having to do with mental/emotional disorders within the service. Hence, I hid and disguised my problems but they have progressively gotten worse since my departure from the military in 1985. I am currently 70% and am shooting for the gold.

[john6012]

John,

You said you wanted to re-open your claim. I assume this means in this instances that your claim was previuosly denied and the decision became final. In order to determine whether your evidence will re-open the claim or not depends on the reasons why denied the claimin the first place. In order to rre-open a previuosly denied claim, youmust submit "new and material" evidence, meaning evidence that VA was previuosly unaware of and did not have befere them at the time of their decision, and evidence that bare directly on the reason for the previuos denial. If you can post the reason for the prviuos denial, maybe I can shed some light on the subject.

Vike 17

Actually, this is a new item. You see, there is a stigma attached to anything having to do with mental/emotional disorders within the service. Hence, I hid and disguised my problems but they have progressively gotten worse since my departure from the military in 1985. I am currently 70% and am shooting for the gold. Maybe I'll reeive 30% and that added to 70% =90%???Who knows?

[Vike17]

John,

You said this is a 'new' item but were already rated at 70%. So, I assume you either have other service-connected disability(ies) rated at 70% and want to file a completely new claim for "mental/emotional" disability compensation, or you are already service-connected for your "mental/emotional" disorder and think you're are filing a new claim by sending the VA new evidence?? I don't know, it's hard to tell. At any rate, if it's the first one you'll need to show a manifestation of symptoms during your time in service, or if you're claiming PTSD, you'll need to have proof of a 'stressor' while in the military and a current diagnosis of PTSD with a shrink linking your inservice stressor to your current PTSD symptoms. If you are just applying for an increase in an already service-connected mental disability, you only need to submit treatment records from your last rating decision/C&P exam for consideration. If yo could clarify you diasbility percentages ect... I may be able to help you further.

Oh, by the way, 70% + 30% doesn't equal 90%, it is combined using the "Combined ratings table" and comes up to 79% rounded up to 80%.

Vike 17

[Ricky]

Vike stated it correctly as usual. Your post is a little confusing but nothing that can not be over come. In my opinion, if this is a new issue, based upon what your have posted so far, I feel that you have very little chance of prevailing. This is based upon the fact that you said "you hid" the symptoms due to your desire to continue your service. There would have to be something in your service medical records in order to claim service connection unless as Vike stated you are going for PTSD in which you will need some traumatic incident to use as the stressor, or a disease that is presumptive and I know of none of the mental codes that are presumptive.

My second issue is with the letter. The doc's statement of "there is no doubt in my mind" does not really mean much in VA claim talk. The next issue is - "the work environment contributed adversely to the individual's psychological condition" what is meant by this? The only reference to the job that I see is that it was taxing. All employment in reality is taxing. It must state what is taxing - did you work in a morgue? if so then that could cause mental issues but it would have to discussed by the doc in the letter.

I hope you see where I am going here. The bottom line is that I think the letter is non-probative. It does not provide the required 51 percent statement, there is no discussion as to the elements of your job enviornment that would explain the doc's statement and there is no medical rational provided by the doc to justify his opinion. Sorry