A mental health condition characterized by extreme mood swings ranging from depressive lows to manic or hypomanic highs.
Medical records that document the frequency, severity, and duration of your symptoms are central to how VA evaluates bipolar disorder. Records showing how often mood episodes occur, how long they last, and how they affect your ability to work or care for yourself help establish where your symptoms fall within the rating formula.
For a 30% or 50% rating, exam findings documenting panic attacks, memory problems, speech disturbances, impaired judgment, or difficulty with complex tasks are relevant. For a 70% rating, records showing suicidal ideation, significant impulse control problems, near-continuous depression or panic, or an inability to hold relationships or adapt to workplace stress directly address those criteria. For a 100% rating, clinical notes documenting persistent delusions, hallucinations, disorientation, or inability to maintain basic personal hygiene are key.
Statements from you or people who know you—describing how symptoms affect your attendance, work performance, relationships, and self-care on a day-to-day basis—can also reflect the occupational and social impairment the formula measures at each level. Mental health treatment records, including hospitalization history and medication records, round out the picture of how the condition affects your functioning.
Conditions that are often caused or made worse by this one. If you have any of these, they may be claimable as secondary service connection.
