VA Disability Evidence Atlas
VA Disability Conditions, Ratings & Evidence Guide
Understand the Condition. Document the Impact. Follow the Evidence.
A physician-led guide to common and overlooked conditions, mental health, secondary connections, medical documentation, VA rating principles, combined-rating math, and the evidence that may matter.
A disability does not have to be dramatic, visible, or immediately diagnosed to affect a Veteran’s life.
Some conditions begin with a symptom that seems easy to dismiss, such as constant ringing in the ears, recurring headaches, disrupted sleep, numbness, digestive problems, anxiety, or persistent pain. Others involve severe loss of function, including paralysis, amputation, traumatic brain injury, organ damage, cancer, or the need for assistance with everyday activities.
The VA Disability Evidence Atlas was created to help Veterans understand the medical and evidentiary questions that may arise when evaluating a disability claim. It explores common conditions, frequently overlooked symptoms, secondary disabilities, treatment complications, mental-health disorders, military exposures, and catastrophic injuries across the full spectrum of impairment.
The Atlas separates four questions that are often mistakenly treated as one:
1. Is there a current diagnosed condition, chronic residual, or qualifying disability?
2. Is there evidence of an event, injury, disease, exposure, or aggravation during military service?
3. Is there a medically supportable relationship between the current condition and service, another service-connected condition, or its treatment?
4. What evidence accurately demonstrates the condition’s present severity and functional impact?
A diagnosis alone does not establish service connection, and service connection alone does not determine the disability percentage. VA evaluations may consider medical findings, diagnostic testing, treatment history, symptom frequency, functional loss, occupational impairment, social impairment, and the criteria assigned to the applicable condition.
Use the condition library to explore hearing and sensory disorders, orthopedic injuries, neurological conditions, respiratory disease, sleep disorders, cardiovascular and endocrine conditions, digestive and urinary disorders, systemic illnesses, mental-health conditions, traumatic injuries, and other disabilities that may be associated with military service.
Each condition guide explains what may be evaluated, which symptoms may be overlooked, what medical documentation may help, where credible lay or witness evidence may be useful, and which secondary relationships may deserve further clinical investigation.
The mental-health center explains the distinctions among PTSD, depression, anxiety, panic disorders, adjustment disorders, insomnia, and other psychiatric conditions. It also explains why the diagnostic label alone does not determine the percentage. The overall severity, frequency, duration, and effect of symptoms on work, relationships, judgment, thinking, self-care, and independent functioning may all be relevant.
The evidence center helps Veterans identify potentially useful records, including service treatment records, personnel records, deployment or exposure documentation, private and VA treatment records, diagnostic testing, medication history, surgical reports, employment records, symptom logs, and statements from spouses, relatives, fellow service members, coworkers, or supervisors.
Lay evidence can help describe symptoms and observable changes, but it cannot replace medical expertise when a diagnosis or causal relationship requires specialized clinical judgment. A strong statement should describe what the witness personally observed, when it began, how often it occurs, and how it affects the Veteran’s daily life.
The rating tools explain why VA disability percentages are not added through ordinary arithmetic. They also provide educational estimates for combined ratings and the bilateral factor. These tools cannot diagnose a condition, assign an official percentage, determine service connection, or predict the outcome of a claim.
The Atlas also addresses increased ratings, proposed reductions, protected-rating milestones, Individual Unemployability, temporary total evaluations, Special Monthly Compensation, loss of use, aid-and-attendance considerations, and other pathways that may not be reflected by simple percentage calculations.
This guide does not encourage Veterans to claim conditions without evidence, exaggerate symptoms, or pursue conclusions unsupported by the medical record. Honest mistakes can be corrected. Knowingly submitting false statements, altered documents, fabricated symptoms, or concealed material information may carry serious financial, administrative, and legal consequences.
Veterans Nexus Institute provides education and independent physician-led medical services. We do not guarantee service connection, disability percentages, effective dates, back pay, or claim approval. VA evaluates the complete record and makes the final benefits determination.
Use this Atlas to understand the medical questions, organize the available evidence, identify what may still be missing, and recognize when a treating clinician, independent physician, or VA-accredited representative may be the appropriate next resource.
Search by condition, symptom, body system, or evidence question. Each entry explains what may be evaluated, what documentation may help, and which related conditions may deserve further medical investigation.
Hearing, Balance & Sensory Conditions
Musculoskeletal Conditions
Neurological Conditions
Mental & Behavioral Health
Respiratory & Sleep Conditions
Cardiovascular & Endocrine Conditions
Digestive, Urinary & Reproductive Conditions
Systemic, Complex & Catastrophic Conditions
Secondary Conditions & Treatment Residuals
Ratings, Evidence & Compensation Pathways
Musculoskeletal Conditions
Neurological Conditions
Mental & Behavioral Health
Respiratory & Sleep Conditions
Cardiovascular & Endocrine Conditions
Digestive, Urinary & Reproductive Conditions
Systemic, Complex & Catastrophic Conditions
Secondary Conditions & Treatment Residuals
Ratings, Evidence & Compensation Pathways
The goal is not to create the strongest possible story. It is to document the truest disability picture the evidence can support.
