ICD-10 Mental Health Codes Cheat Sheet (PDF)

This is the one-page-pinned-by-the-desk version of behavioral health coding: the ICD-10-CM codes clinicians, intake coordinators, and billers actually use every day, in scannable tables, verified against the FY2026 code set (effective October 1, 2025). Not a research page — a lookup page.

Every code below was checked against the official FY2026 ICD-10-CM code descriptions file published by CMS ( cms.gov ICD-10 files ↗ ). For the complete code families behind each table — every billable variant, hierarchy rules, documentation requirements — see the full ICD-10 behavioral health directory.

Print the cheat sheet

Everything you need is in the tables on this page — scannable, verified, and ready to print straight from your browser for pinning next to your monitor. A branded, printable PDF version is coming soon via our resource library.

Most-used mental health ICD-10 codes by category

Codes are listed with shorthand descriptors and a quick usage note. Official long descriptors live in the FY2026 tabular; severity and episode status always come from provider documentation, never coder inference.

Depressive disorders

Anxiety and OCD

Trauma- and stressor-related

Bipolar and related

Psychotic disorders

Neurodevelopmental, childhood-onset, eating, personality

Substance use disorder codes (F10–F19) quick grid

The pattern that unlocks the whole block: pick the substance family, then the stem, then the complication characters. Mild use disorder → the.1- abuse stem; moderate/severe → the.2- dependence stem; severity undocumented →.9-. Final characters: 0 uncomplicated, 1 in remission, 2x intoxication, 3x withdrawal (where the family has it), 4–8x induced disorders.

Three rules that prevent most SUD coding errors:

Each family’s complete table — every intoxication, withdrawal, and induced-disorder variant — lives on its dedicated guide.

• One code per substance, by hierarchy. When documentation mentions use + abuse + dependence for the same substance, code only the highest (Official Guidelines I.C.5.b.2).
• Remission requires provider documentation — the.x1 codes are never inferred from clean screens (I.C.5.b.3).
• No polysubstance shortcut. Multiple substances = multiple codes, one per family. Full rule and the F19.20 exception on the F19 guide.

Z-codes for mental health

Z-codes capture circumstances that are not mental disorders but drive encounters, complicate treatment, or answer the “what do I put when there’s no diagnosis?” question.

“ICD-10 code for no mental health diagnosis”: there isn’t one single code. The two standard answers, by scenario: a suspected condition was evaluated and ruled out → Z03.89 (observation for suspected condition, ruled out); the person presented with a feared complaint and no diagnosis was made → Z71.1. A counseling encounter without a diagnosable disorder takes the applicable Z71.- counseling code. Payer acceptance of Z-code-only claims varies — verify the benefit before relying on any of these as the sole diagnosis.

DSM-5-TR to ICD-10 mapping notes

DSM-5-TR prints the ICD-10-CM code next to each diagnosis, which makes the mapping mostly automatic — and creates exactly three traps worth memorizing (described in our own words; consult the manual for criteria):

If your documentation flows DSM-first (most clinicians’ does), the EHR should carry the crosswalk so the claim never depends on memory.

• DSM severity specifiers drive ICD code selection, but only where ICD has matching codes. MDD severity maps cleanly (mild → F32.0/F33.0, etc.). SUD severity maps by stem: mild → the.1- abuse codes, moderate/severe → the.2- dependence codes — a structural translation, since ICD-10-CM never adopted DSM-5 ’s unified “use disorder.”
• Some DSM distinctions vanish in ICD-10-CM. Phencyclidine use disorder and other-hallucinogen use disorder are separate DSM diagnoses sharing the F16 codes; bipolar II is a rich DSM construct that flattens to the single F31.81.
• Some ICD codes have no clean DSM equivalent. F32.A (depression, unspecified) and the F43.8x other-stress-response codes are coder destinations for documentation that doesn’t reach DSM criteria — they are not DSM diagnoses.

October 1 updates: keeping this sheet current

ICD-10-CM updates every October 1 with the federal fiscal year. The FY2026 update mattered for behavioral health more than most years — the eating disorder section gained severity- and remission-specific codes for anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, retiring several shorter codes clinicians had used for a decade.

Practical refresh routine:

• Each September, pull the new fiscal year’s addenda files from CMS ↗ or CDC/NCHS ↗ — they list only what changed.
• Check your top-billed codes against the deletions list first; a deleted code on an October claim is an automatic rejection.
• Replace your printed cheat sheet — that’s why this one carries its vintage. This page is verified against FY2026 and will be re-verified each October.

How facilities keep coding consistent

A cheat sheet fixes lookup speed; it doesn’t fix consistency across a 40-clinician facility. The operational moves that do:

For the deep dives behind this sheet — full family tables, hierarchy rules, documentation requirements, billing by level of care — start at the ICD-10 behavioral health directory or the glossary primer on ICD-10 codes. Anxiety-specific treatment planning lives in our ICD-10 anxiety codes ultimate guide.

• Diagnosis favorites in the EHR. Curate a facility-level quick-pick list of your top diagnoses so clinicians select from verified codes instead of free-text searching the whole code set.
• Intake-to-claim code flow. The diagnosis established at assessment should flow to the treatment plan, progress notes, and claim without retyping — every manual re-entry is an error opportunity. See how diagnosis documentation anchors treatment plans and claims in our EHR and RCM overviews.
• Audit unspecified-code rates. F32.9, F41.9, and F19.20 frequencies are the fastest proxy for documentation quality — high rates mean clinicians are documenting less specifically than they’re assessing.

FAQ

Is there an official ICD-10 cheat sheet? No — CDC/CMS publish the full code set only. Practitioner cheat sheets condense it; the official tabular remains the billing source of truth.

What is the ICD-10 code for no mental health diagnosis? Z03.89 for a ruled-out suspected condition; Z71.1 for a feared complaint with no diagnosis made; Z71.- counseling codes for diagnosis-free counseling encounters.

Are ICD-9 codes still used? No — ICD-10-CM has been mandatory for HIPAA transactions since October 1, 2015.

Where do I find new codes each October? The CMS ICD-10 page posts each fiscal year’s files and addenda; CDC/NCHS mirrors them.

What changed for behavioral health in FY2026? The headline change: eating disorder codes expanded — anorexia (F50.01x/F50.02x), bulimia (F50.2x), and binge eating disorder (F50.81x) now carry severity and remission characters.

• CMS, FY2026 ICD-10-CM Code Descriptions and Tabular List (effective Oct 1, 2025) — cms.gov/medicare/coding-billing/icd-10-codes ↗ (accessed 2026-06-12)
• CMS, FY2026 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting — fy-2026-icd-10-cm-coding-guidelines.pdf ↗ (accessed 2026-06-12)
• CDC/NCHS, ICD-10-CM — cdc.gov/nchs/icd/icd-10-cm ↗ (accessed 2026-06-12)
• DSM-5-TR referenced descriptively only; no criteria reproduced.

Reference tables

Common questions

Official sources

• cms.gov ICD-10 filescms.gov
• CDC/NCHScdc.gov
• fy-2026-icd-10-cm-coding-guidelines.pdfcms.gov