Getting Disability Benefits for Unlisted "Episodic" Impairments

Many unlisted impairments are also episodic in character.  For instance, migraine headaches can be compared to seizures as they are both episodic impairments.   In fact, SSA specifically noted that epilepsy is a closely analogous listing.

[W]e may find that an individual’s migraine headaches (an unlisted impairment) are medically equivalent in severity to listing 11.03, a seizure disorder listing that is the most closely analogous listing we have for comparison. When we do, we find that the individual is disabled from migraine headaches that are equally as severe as the seizures described in listing 11.03.[i]

Chronic pancreatitis is also episodic and very painful. Symptoms of chronic pancreatitis may be identical to those of acute pancreatitis and generally fall into two patterns. In one pattern, a person has persistent midabdominal pain that varies in intensity. In this pattern, a complication of chronic pancreatitis, such as an inflammatory mass, a cyst, or even pancreatic cancer, is more likely. In the second pattern, a person has intermittent flare-ups (bouts or attacks) of pancreatitis with symptoms similar to those of mild to moderate acute pancreatitis. The pain sometimes is severe and lasts for many hours or several days. With either pattern, as chronic pancreatitis progresses, cells that secrete the digestive enzymes are slowly destroyed, so eventually the pain may stop.[ii]

This condition can equal any of the episodic impairments mentioned above.  For some reason, this disorder is not a listed impairment.  Listing 5.00G does mention that listing level weight loss can result from pancreatic insufficiency, however, the actual symptoms associated with recurrent bouts of the disorder are clearly severe enough to result in disability.

SSA has issued several rulings about specific impairments which are not listed.  They include Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS),[iii] Obesity,[iv] Interstitial Cystitis (IC),[v] Postpolio Sequelae[vi] and Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome/Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (RSD).[vii] Each of these rulings explains that these conditions may equal specific listed impairments.  For instance, CFS, IC and RSD may equal a mental listing.  Obesity may equal a musculoskeletal listing.  And Postpolio Sequelae may equal anterior poliomyelitis (listing 11.11).

[i] 71 FR 10426
[ii] http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec09/ch124/ch124c.html
[iii] SSR 99-2p
[iv] SSR 00-3p (2000).  See also SSR 02-1p (2002) superseding and replacing SSR 00-3p
[v] SSR 02-2p
[vi] SSR 03-1p
[vii] SSR 03-2p