10-2487 Scott v. Astrue

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Public Health
Disability benefits

It was error to deny disability benefits to a person with bipolar disorder based on the fact that episodes are sporadic.
“The ALJ also found Dr. Tate’s assessment internally inconsistent because, on the one hand, she opined that Scott is markedly limited in her ability to work and is likely to miss three days of work per month while, on the other hand, she also stated that Scott had responded well to treatment. But the ALJ was too quick to read inconsistency into these statements. There can be a great distance between a patient who responds to treatment and one who is able to enter the workforce, and that difference is borne out in Dr. Tate’s treatment notes. Those notes show that although Scott had improved with treatment, she nevertheless continued to frequently experience bouts of crying and feelings of paranoia. The ALJ was not permitted to “cherry-pick” from those mixed results to support a denial of benefits. Denton v. Astrue, 596 F.3d 419, 425 (7th Cir. 2010); See Myles v. Astrue, 582 F.3d 672, 678 (7th Cir. 2009). Moreover, the ALJ’s analysis reveals an all-too-common misunderstanding of mental illness. The very nature of bipolar disorder is that people with the disease experience fluctuations in their symptoms, so any single notation that a patient is feeling better or has had a ‘good day’ does not imply that the condition has been treated. See Punzio, 630 F.3d at 710; Larson v. Astrue, 615 F.3d 744, 751 (7th Cir. 2010); Bauer v. Astrue, 532 F.3d 606, 609 (7th Cir. 2008).”

Vacated and Remanded.

10-2487 Scott v. Astrue

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Schenkier, Mag. J., Tinder, J.

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