VA Diagnostic Code 9312Major or mild neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer's disease

VA Disability Rating: Major or Mild Neurocognitive Disorder Due to Alzheimer's Disease

Diagnostic Code 9312 · 38 CFR § 4.130 · Body System: Mental Disorders

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Understanding This Condition

Major or mild neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer's disease is rated by the VA under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders (§ 4.130). Because it falls under this formula, the VA does not assign a rating based on the diagnosis alone — instead, it looks at how the condition affects your occupational and social functioning, and matches the symptoms you experience to one of several rating levels.

The rating levels below describe increasing degrees of impairment, from a formally diagnosed condition with minimal effect on daily life, up to total occupational and social impairment.

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Available Rating Levels

100%

Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name.

70%

Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as: suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a worklike setting); inability to establish and maintain effective relationships.

50%

Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as: flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week; difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short- and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood; difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships.

30%

Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as: depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events).

10%

Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks only during periods of significant stress, or symptoms controlled by continuous medication.

0%

A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough either to interfere with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication.

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What the VA Looks For

When rating this condition under the General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders, the VA focuses on:

• A formal diagnosis of the condition.
• The degree of occupational and social impairment — that is, how the condition affects your ability to work and to maintain relationships.
• The specific symptoms present and how frequently and severely they occur, matched against the descriptions in each rating level above (for example, memory loss, mood disturbances, panic attacks, difficulty with daily activities, or impairment in thought processes and communication).
• Whether symptoms are controlled by continuous medication, which is a factor at certain rating levels.

The rating that applies is the one whose description most closely matches your overall level of impairment.