How to file a VA claim for PTSD

The three elements

A PTSD claim stands on three elements, and a denial usually names the one VA found missing.

• Current diagnosis: PTSD diagnosed by a qualified provider, in treatment records or established at the C&P exam. The rating formula's 0% line presumes a formal diagnosis exists.
• In-service stressor: a specific event or events during service — combat, an accident, an assault, a death you witnessed or responded to — described in your stressor statement with as much detail as you can give: unit, place, approximate date.
• Nexus: a medical opinion or examination finding that the current PTSD is linked to that stressor. The C&P examiner is typically asked for this opinion; private treatment providers can give it too.

VA: Evidence needed for a disability claim

In this series: PTSD VA rating

• PTSD VA rating criteria: the general rating formula

  The complete General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders — 0% to 100% — that VA applies to PTSD under DC 9411, with a plain-language reading of every level.

• The PTSD DBQ and C&P exam

  What the PTSD Disability Benefits Questionnaire covers — diagnosis, the occupational and social impairment summary, and the symptom record — and how it feeds the rating formula.

• PTSD rating increase: showing the next level

  An increase turns on impairment, not diagnosis: what has to change between the formula's levels, and the records that prove the change.

• Sleep apnea secondary to PTSD

  How veterans pursue sleep apnea as secondary to service-connected PTSD — the sleep-study diagnosis, the nexus opinion, and how apnea itself is rated under DC 6847.

Corroborating the stressor

VA looks for service records consistent with the stressor — personnel records showing the unit and deployment, records of the event itself, decorations, or statements from people who served with you. Where the stressor involves personal assault, VA accepts a wider range of supporting evidence, including records and behavioral changes documented after the event. If you are unsure what records exist, file the claim and the stressor statement anyway: VA has a duty to assist in looking for federal records, and the Intent to File deadline on this page protects your date while that search runs.

VA: How to file a disability claim

What happens after filing

VA schedules a C&P exam — the DBQ page in this series explains what the examiner records and how it maps to the percentages. The decision then assigns service connection and a percentage from the formula, or denies with reasons. A denial that never addresses your stressor statement, or that rests on an exam which did not review it, is the kind of defect the denied-claim lanes exist for.

VA: How to file a disability claim

PTSD filing checklist

Assemble the claim around the three elements. Each item below maps to the element it proves, so a gap in the file is easy to spot before VA spots it.

• Diagnosis: PTSD diagnosed by a qualified provider, in treatment records or to be established at the C&P exam
• Stressor: your written statement of the event — unit, place, approximate date, your role
• Corroboration: personnel or unit records, decorations, or buddy statements placing you at the event
• Nexus: a provider or examiner opinion linking the diagnosis to the stressor
• An Intent to File submitted first if the records will take time to gather