United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

___________________________

No. 17-1156

___________________________

Robert Thomas

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellant

v.

Nancy A. Berryhill, Acting Commissioner of Social Security

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellee

____________

Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Western District of Missouri - Joplin

____________

Submitted: October 5, 2017

Filed: October 11, 2017

[Unpublished]

____________

Before GRUENDER, BENTON, and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

____________

PER CURIAM.

Robert Thomas appeals the district court’s order upholding the denial of his 1

application for socialsecurity disability insurance benefits (DIB). Having jurisdiction

under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, this court affirms.

The Honorable Matt Jeffrey Whitworth, United States Magistrate Judge for

1

the Western District of Missouri, to whom the case was referred for final disposition

by consent of the parties pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c).
Thomas challenges the conclusion that one of his medically determinable

impairments—depression—was not severe. Substantial evidence on the record as a

whole supports the administrative law judge’s finding that Thomas’s depression did

not significantly limit his ability to do basic work activities. See, e.g., Kirby v.

Astrue, 500 F.3d 705, 707 (8th Cir. 2007) (five-step analysis for determining whether

claimant is disabled; de novo review of district court decision; deference to

administrative findings; definition of “severe”).

Thomas worked for decades and did not seek treatment until several months

after he applied for DIB. The record does not support his explanation that his

symptoms significantly worsened recently. Cf. Goff v. Barnhart, 421 F.3d 785, 792

(8th Cir. 2005) (inferring impairment was not disabling from history of work and

absence of evidence of material deterioration). The notes from Thomas’s six months

of therapy contain no observations ofsymptoms that would interfere with basic work

activities. The limitations Thomas identifies in his account of his day-to-day

activities do not prove his depression has more than a minimal impact on his ability

to work. There is no indication in the record that Thomas’s symptoms interfered with

or stopped him from engaging in the activities that triggered them, and he did not

characterize them as disabling when he applied for DIB or when he testified about his

impairments before the ALJ. Cf. Kirby, 500 F.3d at 708-09 (upholding finding that

mental impairments were not severe based in part on doctor’s opinion that “while [the

claimant] may have suffered from depression, his calculation, recall, comprehension,

repetition, judgment, and behavior were normal” (quotation omitted)); Dunahoo v.

Apfel, 241 F.3d 1033, 1039 (8th Cir. 2001) (“The fact that [a claimant] did not allege

depression in her application for disability benefits issignificant, even if the evidence

of depression was later developed.”).

The ALJ was not required to give more weight to the medical-source statement

filed by the nurse practitioner who prescribed Thomas’s medication than to the

opinion of the doctor who performed Thomas’s agency-ordered examination. The

few minor deficiencies the nurse practitioner recorded in her notes did not support the

-2-
significant limitations she later indicated in her statement. The ALJ was justified in

citing the tension between the low “global assessment of functioning” (GAF) score

Thomasreceived froma social worker and the social worker’s qualitative observation

that Thomas functioned at a relatively high level as a reason to discount the score. 

See Nowling v. Colvin, 813 F.3d 1110, 1123 (8th Cir. 2016) (“GAF scores are of little

value.”).

This court findsit unnecessary to review the ALJ’s determination that Thomas

was not entirely credible, because Thomas’s hearing testimony and the ALJ’s

references to his credibility focused on Thomas’s alleged physical impairments,

which are not at issue in this appeal.

The judgment is affirmed.

______________________________

-3-