Renada Bridges v. Frank Bisignano

Summary

This Report and Recommendation concerns Renada Bridges’s action under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) seeking review of the Commissioner of Social Security’s denial of her application for a closed period of disability insurance benefits. The Magistrate Judge evaluates challenges to the ALJ’s treatment of Bridges’s mental impairments, residual functional capacity, medical opinions, and subjective symptoms, and recommends denying her motion for judgment on the administrative record.

Holdings

1. The ALJ's determination that Bridges's anxiety and depression were non-severe impairments was supported by substantial evidence and did not warrant reversal.
2. The ALJ adequately considered Bridges's severe and non-severe impairments and reasonably evaluated Nurse Urell's medical opinion; the residual functional capacity determination was supported by substantial evidence.
3. The ALJ did not err in finding that Bridges's statements concerning the intensity, persistence, and limiting effects of her symptoms were not entirely consistent with the medical and other evidence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the ALJ erred by finding that Bridges's anxiety and depression were non-severe impairments.
2. Whether the ALJ properly considered all medically determinable impairments and the medical-opinion evidence when formulating Bridges's residual functional capacity.
3. Whether the ALJ properly evaluated Bridges's subjective complaints concerning pain, fatigue, and other disabling symptoms.
4. Whether the ALJ's decision was supported by substantial evidence and applied the correct legal standards.

Disposition

other