Chronic Pain Claim

[tk123456789]

Hello, I recently made a VA claim for chronic pain due to my already existing 10% rated service connected left knee injury. I am waiting to hear back with a decision, I had the C&P and think it went ok.

My question is, since I have filed a chronic pain claim, is it possible to file for other things like PTSD and/or MST? I was speaking with a company that helps veterans and they told me I can't file a claim for PTSD or MST since I filed a claim for chronic pain which falls under mental health. 

[broncovet]

Welcome to hadit.  

Yes, if you have symptoms of PTSD/MST or other conditions which you think may be related to service, by all means file.  

Many Veterans get compensated for various mental health issues such as depression, PTSD, anxiety, MST, etc.  But, if you dont apply, you wont get them.  

As always, you are going to need the Caluza elements:  Current diagnosis (of PTSD, etc), an "in service event" (called a stressor with PTSD) and a doctors opinion that your PTSD was at least as likely as not due to (your stressor).  

A stressor is an event which caused you stress.  Some examples:  Your buddy got killed.  You had to move bodies.  You were sexually assaulted by a superior.  (MST).  You got shot at, or you were concerned that people are trying to kill you.  (The enemy probably is trying to kill you, if you served in a war zone..). 

There are many traumatic events in the military, which could be a stressor.  When in doubt, apply.  

[tk123456789]

36 minutes ago, broncovet said:

Welcome to hadit.  

Yes, if you have symptoms of PTSD/MST or other conditions which you think may be related to service, by all means file.  

Many Veterans get compensated for various mental health issues such as depression, PTSD, anxiety, MST, etc.  But, if you dont apply, you wont get them.  

As always, you are going to need the Caluza elements:  Current diagnosis (of PTSD, etc), an "in service event" (called a stressor with PTSD) and a doctors opinion that your PTSD was at least as likely as not due to (your stressor).  

A stressor is an event which caused you stress.  Some examples:  Your buddy got killed.  You had to move bodies.  You were sexually assaulted by a superior.  (MST).  You got shot at, or you were concerned that people are trying to kill you.  (The enemy probably is trying to kill you, if you served in a war zone..). 

There are many traumatic events in the military, which could be a stressor.  When in doubt, apply.  

So the VA won't look at the diagnosis from the chronic pain and then try to reduce the rating if their diagnosis of the PTSD or MST is less severe?

[brokensoldier244th]

You can file for multiple things under 1 'system' though it may get lumped in together on the same claim. It depends on where your current claim is in the process. If it's being rated but not finalized and you file something now then your current claim will have these new contentions added to it. Chronic pain is considered Mental, but it's obviously not PTSD or MST. Your current claimed contentions for MST/PTSD would likely have chronic pain subsumed within them, but you would also have to have a separate mental examination C&P because PTSD and MST have very specific things that are asked and looked at, and only specific people can do those types of exams and write the opinions required. 

 

I work remotely for the MST Operations Center in San Juan. 95% of what I've done in the last 2 yrs has been exclusively MST claims, and, as a side project, an OIG review of about 9000 prior denied MST claims that may have been wrongfully developed and/or denied, or may have the wrong effective date.

So, if you want to PM me any questions I'm open to it. MST claims are only worked by certain VSR's that are trained for it, and it has been that way for a few years now. Incidentally, I'm representing our RO in June in DC at a national symposium about MST, treatment, claims development, and military strategies to prevent/mitigate/support veteran survivors of MST. I've read and seen pretty much anything you could imagine at this point but how specific you want to get if you PM me is totally up to you. 

[brokensoldier244th]

9 minutes ago, tk123456789 said:

So the VA won't look at the diagnosis from the chronic pain and then try to reduce the rating if their diagnosis of the PTSD or MST is less severe?

If you have a well-supported claim for PTSD/MST it's highly unlikely that it will be rated less than your chronic pain. Raters have to go with the higher rating, anyway, not the lower one. Your chronic pain will still be rated under mental, but collectively with the rest. Due to pyramiding restrictions, you can't have more than 1 MH rating. 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by brokensoldier244th

[Guest]

I don't think chronic pain bring on PTSD.  Now can it make it worse?  I think so.  

Unless there is pyramiding, they would not look at them as one in the same.  Chronic pain and PTSD are two seperate ratings.  

I currently have more than 10 ratable items

1 of them they put in for pyramiding way later in the claim, but it did fall under the issue.  

I have: PTSD-IBS-headaches-Dercums disease-scaring-fibro-high blood pressure-Knee injury-tinitues and hearing loss-Sinitus-Left rib brake-Sleep apnea-and other ones at 0.

So they combined the Dercum's disease with the scaring as it was a result of it.  Now they did give me a higher rating, but not as high as I though they should go.

As for the rest they are all rated seperatly.  

Now if I tried to do depresson-MST-PTSD-Anxitey, they will not rate these seperatly as they would be rated under the same thing.  

[brokensoldier244th]

Your company also gave you incorrect or incomplete information, FYI.