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Disabilities: Paranoid schizophrenia, personality disorder, depression, anxiety, and Fisher's disease
Notice of Decision: Fully Favorable
Administrative Law Judge: Robert D. Gill
Office of Disability Adjudication & Review (ODAR): Miami-Dade & Monroe County, Florida (including the Florida Keys (Key West))
FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
After careful consideration of the entire record, I make the following findings:
1. The claimant has not engaged in substantial gainful activity since October 11, 2006, the amended alleged onset date (20 CFR §416.920(b) and §416.971 et seq.).
2. The claimant suffers from the following severe impairments: paranoid schizophrenia, personality disorder, depression, anxiety, and Fisher's disease (20 CFR §416.920(c)).
3. The severity of the claimant's Schizophrenia NOS (Not Otherwise Specified) meets the criteria of §12.03, A, 1, 3, c, 4, and Bland 3 of 20 CFR Part 404, Subpart P, Appendix 1 (20 CFR §416.920(d)).
In making this finding, I considered all symptoms and the extent to which these symptoms can reasonably be accepted as consistent with the objective medical evidence and other evidence, based on the requirements of 20 CFR §416.929 and SSRs 96-4p and 96-7p. I have also considered opinion evidence in accordance with the requirements of20 CFR §4l6.927 and SSRs 96-2p, 96-5p, 96-6p and 06-3p.
The record establishes that the claimant began treating with Dr. Florinda Calderon, a psychiatrist at the Henderson Mental Health Center, beginning in January 2006, for paranoid schizophrenia. She had a history of psychiatric hospitalization for psychotic symptoms, and she was prescribed medications that included Haldol, Cogentin, and Trazadone. She reported hearing voices, social withdrawal, and poor sleep and appetite. Dr. Calderon described the claimant as having childlike, regressed speech. Dr. Calderon consistently gave the claimant GAF scores of 36 to 45 at her follow up visits with one GAF score of 45 in December 2007, scores that demonstrate seriously diminished mental functioning. Her affect was blunted and guarded, and she demonstrated regressive behaviors. On occasion, the claimant's affect was bright, and she was cooperative and pleasant.
Dr. Calderon confirmed that the claimant meets the requirements of §12.03 (A) in that she had medically documented persistence, either continuous or intermittent, of delusions or hallucinations and incoherence, loosening of associations, illogical thinking, or poverty of content of speech associated with inappropriate affect, and emotional withdrawal and/or isolation and resulting in moderate restriction of her activities of daily living, marked difficulties maintaining social functioning, and marked difficulties in maintaining concentration, persistence, or pace.
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