Adjustment Disorder ICD-10 Codes
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Determining the right adjustment disorder ICD-10, including the adjustment disorder with anxiety ICD-10 code, is essential for clinicians.
As a mental health practitioner, you may need to use ICD-10 codes for clinical notes and assessments, especially if you’re billing insurance.
Unlike the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), which is a national publication that only encompasses mental health diagnoses, ICD-10 codes are internationally recognized and inclusive of diagnoses from all health care specialties.
Depending on a patient’s severity of presentation, co-occurring disorders, and their medical history, there are often several ICD-10 codes for each mental health disorder.
This article provides an overview of the adjustment disorder ICD-10 codes to help identify the correct codes for clients and patients.
What is the ICD-10?
The ICD-10 stands for the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, which is a guide used by the World Health Organization (WHO) to standardize the classification, collection, and processing of mortality information for all medical conditions, and to identify health and disease trends.
In addition to the ICD-10, mental health clinicians in the United States use the DSM-5, which was published in 2013. Fortunately, each mental health disorder listed in the DSM-5 also lists the corresponding ICD-10 code in parentheses.
Using the correct codes is essential for you to determine the course of treatment or case management for each patient. It also ensures the correct administration for billing and insurance purposes, preventing any delays in reimbursement.
Bookmark this article as a reference to use next time you need to access the most common ICD-10 codes for adjustment disorder.
What are the ICD-10 codes for adjustment disorder?
Adjustment disorder falls within the “Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders” of the DSM. There are seven adjustment disorder ICD-10 codes listed by the WHO and the DSM. These are used to record a diagnosis and bill insurance.
SimplePractice’s list of the top 20 ICD codes, most commonly used by behavioral health clinicians when billing insurance, includes several ICD-10 codes for adjustment disorder.
Adjustment disorder ICD-10 codes appear in four instances on the list of 20 most-frequently used codes:
- #2 Adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood (F43.23)
- #4 Adjustment disorder with anxiety (F43.22)
- #6 Adjustment disorder, unspecified (F43.20)
- #10 Adjustment disorder with depressed mood (F43.21)
Other common adjustment disorder codes you may be searching for are:
- Adjustment disorder with disturbance of conduct (F43.24)
- Adjustment disorder with disturbance of emotions and conduct (F43.25)
- Adjustment disorder with other symptoms (F43.29)
Clinicians should also specify (if using DSM criteria):
- Acute: whether symptoms have persisted for less than six months
- Persistent/chronic: used to indicate symptoms lasting for greater than six months after the stressor has been removed
How to find adjustment disorder ICD-10 codes
In addition to the adjustment disorder with anxiety ICD-10, you can find the full list of ICD-10 codes for adjustment disorders in several online and hard copy formats:
- The official ICD-10, under the section “Mental and Behavioral Disorders” and sub-section, “Neurotic, Stress-related, and Somatoform Disorders”
- ICD-10 Data, a searchable ICD-10 database
- DSM-5 throughout the textbook and digital publication. The hard copy contains handy alphabetical and numerical lists of applicable ICD-10 codes.
It is worth noting that while the DSM-5 does contain accurate ICD-10 codes, those codes may not be the most recent and up-to-date versions—diagnostic criteria and other indicators may differ.
Differential diagnosis for adjustment disorder
While patients may meet some criteria for adjustment disorder, or adjustment disorder with anxiety, the DSM states that, on occasion, there may be more appropriate diagnoses, such as:
- Major depressive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder
- Personality disorders
- Bereavement
- Psychological factors impacting other medical conditions
- Normative stress reactions
What is the ICD-10 code for depression?
Adjustment disorder, particularly adjustment disorder with depressive symptoms, can sometimes present similarly to depression. In these cases, there may be a more appropriate ICD-10 code for a patient experiencing a depressive episode.
ICD-10 codes for depression can include specifiers that identify the severity, duration of episodes, and other associated features, like psychosis.
Some of the commonly used ICD-10 codes for depression include:
- Major depressive episode, recurrent, mild (F33.0)
- Major depressive episode, recurrent, moderate (F33.1)
- Major depressive episode, recurrent, severe (F33.2)
- Major depressive episode, single episode, moderate (F32.1)
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