On Monday December 10, 2012, VA published a proposed
regulation that would make 5 illnesses secondary to service-connected TBI
(traumatic brain injury). The new subsection of 38 C.F.R. § 3.310 would state
that if a veteran is service-connected for TBI and also has one of the five
illnesses, then that illness will be service-connected as secondary to the TBI.
The proposed rule is based on the findings of the National Academy of Sciences,
Institute of Medicine that there is “sufficient evidence of a causal relationship”
between moderate or severe levels of TBI and (1) diagnosed unprovoked seizures,
(2) Parkinsonism; (3) dementias (to include presenile dementias of the
Alzheimer type and post-traumatic dementia), (4) depression (also associated
with mild TBI), and (5) diseases of hormone deficiency that may result from
hypothalamo-pituitary changes.
The full text of the proposed regulation is in the Federal
Register:
Comments on the proposed rule must be received by VA on or
before February 8, 2013.
