If you are pursuing Social Security disability benefits and your primary impairment is depression, you will need more and stronger evidence to win your case.
Over the past few years I have noticed a trend in my law practice whereby judges are less likely to award benefits in depression cases unless your medical record contains evidence of suicide attempts, in-patient psychiatric hospitalizations or other symptoms that could be life threatening.
Unlike medical conditions like back pain arising from a herniated disc, irritable bowel syndrome associated with a diseased colon, cancer that requires surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, or blood clots that require you to keep your legs elevated, severe depression cannot be imaged using an MRI, CT scan or ultrasound. Psychologists and psychiatrists test for depression based on conversations with patients and their long term relationships with their patients.
Many in Congress believe that depression can be faked or exaggerated, and that mental health professionals have an economic incentive to continue to treat patients. This attitude of suspicion has filtered into the Social Security Administration where judges are approve only cases where there is objective evidence.
Some disability judges believe that if your depression has not manifested itself in the form of suicide attempts or inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations then it is a manageable condition, or at least a condition that would not preclude simple, entry-level work.
In cases where there are no actual suicide attempts or hospitalizations, judges expect to see long term treatment, evaluations by multiple psychiatrists or psychologists, multiple unsuccessful medication trials and complete compliance with all recommended treatment. Self medication with alcohol or drugs will usually doom a claim.
In my practice I regularly see potential clients who appear to be severely affected by depression but who may not have the funds to obtain the treatment they would need to win disability benefits. Unfortunately an individual who relies on free or low cost county mental health providers or upon the Veterans’ Administration most likely will not have the evidence I need to win.
Unfortunately many deserving claimants are denied more because they don’t have the funds for treatment as opposed to the true severity of their condition.
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