Golden: GAF scores, rating psychiatric conditions
/Golden, Jr. v. Shulkin, 29 Vet.App. 221 (Feb. 23, 2018)
HELD: “Given that the DSM-5 abandoned the GAF scale and that VA has formally adopted the DSM-5, the Court holds that the Board errs when it uses GAF scores to assign a psychiatric rating in cases where the DSM-5 applies.”
SUMMARY: Veteran is service connected for PTSD, rated 70%. He appealed for a higher rating – and his appeal was certified to the Board in June 2015. The Board denied a higher rating based on the veteran’s GAF scores –even though it acknowledged that the DSM-5 applied to claims certified to the Board after August 4, 2014, and that this edition of the DSM had eliminated the use of GAF scores.
The Court recognized that VA is required to evaluate a disability “in relation to its history,” per 38 C.F.R. § 4.1, and to consider all medical and lay evidence of record –which may include GAF scores.The Court emphasized that VA’s ”rating analysis for psychiatric disorders has always been ‘symptom driven,’ meaning that ‘symptom[s] should be the fact finder’s primary focus” when assigning a rating.” The Court thus clarified: “to the extent that the Board may have been tempted to use numerical GAF scores as a shortcut for gauging psychiatric impairment, such use would be error.”
