PTSD at the Board
PTSD is rated under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders at 38 CFR 4.130, which is not a symptom checklist. The tiers are levels of occupational and social impairment, and the symptoms listed in the regulation are examples rather than requirements. This page is built from the PTSD cases the Board of Veterans' Appeals decided in 2025, extracted and counted from the published decisions.
One thing to understand before any number below. Every case that reaches the Board was denied at least once already. These are appeals. They show what the Board saw, not what happens to a claim filed today.
What the Board decided
The record holds 1,404 relevant PTSD decisions from 2025: 394 granted, 421 denied, 441 remanded, 59 dismissed, and 89 mixed.
Among decisions the Board granted or denied, 394 of 815 were granted (48.3%) and 421 of 815 were denied. This merits figure counts only grants and denials. It explicitly excludes mixed, remanded, and dismissed decisions. It describes appeals the Board decided, not the chance of any one claim succeeding.
Claim types
Each decision is counted once under its recorded claim type, out of 1,404 relevant decisions.
Service connection accounted for 647 of 1,404 decisions. Increased rating accounted for 447 of 1,404 decisions. Effective date accounted for 194 of 1,404 decisions. Individual unemployability (TDIU) accounted for 84 of 1,404 decisions. Other accounted for 32 of 1,404 decisions.
Most PTSD appeals are not about getting service connected. They are about the percentage. That changes what evidence matters, because the question is no longer whether the condition is connected to service but how much it limits work and relationships.
Stressor type
A stressor type was recorded in 463 of 1,404 relevant decisions. The groups below are counted only within those 463, not across the whole record. A decision naming more than one kind of stressor appears in more than one group, so the counts can overlap. A decision with no recorded stressor type does not mean the file had no stressor; the extraction simply did not record one.
- Personal assault or military sexual trauma142 of 463 with a recorded stressor
- Other recorded stressor129 of 463 with a recorded stressor
- Combat123 of 463 with a recorded stressor
- Fear of hostile military or terrorist activity90 of 463 with a recorded stressor
- Other personal trauma11 of 463 with a recorded stressor
- Motor vehicle accident7 of 463 with a recorded stressor
The rating criteria
The General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders is found at 38 C.F.R. § 4.130. These percentages come from the regulation. They are not cohort statistics, and each line below is a plain-language summary of a level of impairment, not a list of required symptoms.
| Rating | Level of impairment |
|---|---|
| 100% | Total impairment of working and social life. |
| 70% | Deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking or mood. |
| 50% | Reduced reliability and productivity at work and in relationships. |
| 30% | Occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform tasks, while generally functioning satisfactorily. |
| 10% | Mild or transient symptoms that reduce work efficiency only during periods of significant stress, or symptoms controlled by continuous medication. |
| 0% | A diagnosed condition whose symptoms are not severe enough to interfere with work and social functioning or to require continuous medication. |
These tiers describe levels of impairment, not lists of symptoms you need to check off. A veteran who isolates from his family and misses work is describing a level of impairment even if he never uses a single term from the regulation. The question a rater is answering is how much of your working and social life this takes.
If you want to see how your own description reads against these criteria, the gap checker is here.
Where these exams go wrong
441 of 1,404 relevant decisions were remanded. Of those 441 remands, 108 were recorded as remanded for an inadequate examination.
Of those 108 inadequate-exam remands, 108 had a recorded description of the defect. The themes below are keyword groupings of those recorded descriptions, not a fresh extraction. A single remand can appear under more than one theme, so the counts can overlap. They are not individual determinations about any examination.
- Toxic-exposure theory74 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Diagnosis or differentiation of psychiatric conditions37 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Secondary causation or aggravation28 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Rationale or factual basis23 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Relevant records or medical history23 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Lay reports or symptom history21 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Stressor assessment, verification or trauma markers16 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Conflicting findings or opinions11 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Severity and occupational or social impairment9 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
- Other recorded examination defect8 of 108 described inadequate-exam remands
Separately, an examination defect note of some kind was recorded in 282 of 1,404 relevant decisions across all outcomes. That figure spans outcomes rather than counting remands, so it is not a remand count.
M21-1 context
VA's own procedures manual lists what makes an examination report insufficient for rating purposes. This is M21-1, internal guidance for VA staff, not law. It does not decide a veteran's claim by itself.
- The examination report is unsigned
- The examination report does not address all disabilities for which an examination was requested
- Required questions on the disability benefits questionnaire are unanswered
- The required review of the claims folder was not accomplished, when applicable
- The report is missing information pertinent to the specific disability under review, such as the impact of musculoskeletal pain on the functional loss of an affected joint
- A medical opinion is not properly supported by a valid rationale or by the evidence of record
- A requested medical opinion was not furnished
M21-1, Part IV, Subpart i, 3.C.1.a, change date July 23, 2025.
What the Board cited
These counts are distinct decisions per evidence type, not raw citation entries. The denominators are 394 grants and 421 denials. Any cited evidence was recorded in 297 of 394 grants and 279 of 421 denials; a decision with nothing recorded means the extraction found no listed evidence, not that the file had none. One decision can cite more than one type. When the Board grants a claim it tends to list the evidence it relied on, while denials often say less, so the denial columns understate what was in the file.
| Evidence cited | Granted decisions | Denied decisions |
|---|---|---|
| VA examinations | 172 of 394 | 180 of 421 |
| Other cited evidence | 191 of 394 | 143 of 421 |
| Lay statements or testimony | 159 of 394 | 109 of 421 |
| VA treatment records | 78 of 394 | 85 of 421 |
| Claim or appeal documents | 81 of 394 | 56 of 421 |
| Service treatment or examination records | 46 of 394 | 62 of 421 |
| VA medical opinions | 57 of 394 | 36 of 421 |
| Treatment records (provider not specified) | 39 of 394 | 30 of 421 |
These counts come from automated extraction of the published decisions. Errors are possible. If something here looks wrong, the contact address is in the footer.
Ruck has tools that read your own description and evidence against criteria like these. They point out gaps in what you wrote without predicting a rating or a decision. Start from the home page.
Also in the record: Migraines at the Board · Sleep apnea secondary to PTSD at the Board. Data cached for up to one hour.