Rating guide · Neurological
Brain Injury Claims: Capture Every Lasting Effect
Roadside bombs, vehicle rollovers, training falls and close-range blasts caused head injuries that often went undocumented. The strongest TBI claims identify each lingering effect and make sure every one is rated.
- The facet table
- Separately rated effects
- Presumed conditions
- Proving an old injury
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Thinking and Behavior: The Ten Facets
Examiners score ten areas: memory, attention, concentration and executive functions; judgment; social interaction; orientation; motor activity; visual spatial orientation; subjective symptoms; neurobehavioral effects; communication; and consciousness. Your single highest facet determines this part of the rating.
Effects That Get Their Own Ratings
Residuals that carry a separate diagnosis are rated on their own and then combined with the facet rating:
- Migraines and other chronic headaches
- Ringing in the ears and hearing loss
- Seizure disorders, vision problems, vertigo and balance trouble
- Diagnosed mental health conditions, under the mental health rating formula
VA won’t rate the same symptom twice, so a good examiner sorts out which problem belongs to which condition.
Conditions VA Presumes Follow a TBI
Once a TBI is service-connected, VA treats the following as connected too, unless clear evidence points to another cause:
- Parkinsonism or unprovoked seizures following a moderate or severe TBI
- Dementia of the presenile Alzheimer type, frontotemporal dementia or dementia with Lewy bodies appearing within 15 years of a moderate or severe TBI
- Depression within 3 years after a moderate or severe TBI, or within 12 months after a mild TBI
- Diseases of hormone deficiency resulting from hypothalamo-pituitary changes within 12 months after a moderate or severe TBI
Mild, moderate or severe is decided by the signs at the time you were hurt, such as how long you lost consciousness, rather than by how you are doing now.
Proving an injury nobody wrote down
Buddy statements describing the incident, records showing headaches, memory lapses or mood changes afterward, and a current neurological exam can together establish a TBI that never made it into your service file. Veterans in the Quad Cities can seek evaluation through VA Iowa City Health Care or a private neurologist.
TBI VA Rating: Common Questions
Can TBI and PTSD both be rated?
Yes, as long as each rating rests on different symptoms. The examiner may have to separate which symptoms come from which condition.
Do my headaches fall under the TBI rating?
No. A diagnosed headache disorder such as migraines is rated on its own, on top of the facet rating.
What decides whether my TBI was mild, moderate or severe?
Signs recorded at the time of injury, such as how long you were unconscious, how long post-traumatic amnesia lasted and your Glasgow Coma Scale score.
No one diagnosed my TBI in service. Can I still file?
Yes. Statements about what happened, records of later symptoms and a current evaluation can support the claim.
Illinois Veterans: Get the Rating You Earned
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