ICD-10 Codes for Mood Disorders: F30–F39

When someone searches for “the ICD-10 code for mood disorder,” the literal answer is F39 — unspecified mood [affective] disorder. But F39 is almost never the code you actually want on a claim. Mood disorders occupy an entire block of ICD-10-CM — F30 through F39, “Mood [affective] disorders” — and choosing correctly inside that block is the difference between clean claims and a denial queue.

This guide maps the full F30–F39 block as published in the FY2026 ICD-10-CM code set ↗ (effective October 1, 2025), explains the decision points that trip up behavioral health coders — single vs. recurrent episode, severity characters, F32.9 vs. F32.A, the F34 persistent disorders — and covers the documentation payers expect behind each code.

This page is part of our ICD-10 directory for behavioral health.

The short answer: F39 — and when to avoid it

F39, unspecified mood [affective] disorder, is the block’s catch-all. The FY2026 tabular list gives it a single inclusion term: “affective psychosis NOS.” It is billable, and it is sometimes legitimately the right code — for example, at a first intake where mood pathology is evident but the clinician cannot yet distinguish a primary depressive disorder from an emerging bipolar presentation.

The problem is what F39 signals to a payer. Specificity is a core principle of the ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting ↗: report codes to the highest level of specificity the documentation supports. A behavioral health facility billing weeks of programming on F39 is telling the payer that, after dozens of clinical contacts, the treatment team still has not characterized the mood disorder. Utilization reviewers read that as either thin documentation or thin treatment — and either reading invites records requests and denials.

Practical rule: F39 is an intake code, not a treatment code. If it survives past the first treatment plan review, the diagnosis section of the chart needs attention before the next claim goes out.

The F30–F39 block at a glance

The block contains seven categories in ICD-10-CM. All codes below are verified against the FY2026 tabular list.

A note on F38. If you learned ICD-10 from WHO materials, you may expect an F38 (“other mood [affective] disorders”) category. F38 does not exist in ICD-10-CM — the U.S. clinical modification routes “other” presentations to F32.89 (other specified depressive episodes), F33.8 (other recurrent depressive disorders), and F34.89 (other specified persistent mood disorders) instead. A claim carrying F38 will reject as an invalid code. Decayed code-lookup pages that still list F38 are a reliable sign the content predates careful ICD-10-CM review.

Choosing between F32 and F33: single vs. recurrent

The most common mood-disorder coding decision in outpatient behavioral health is F32 versus F33, and the logic is simple in principle:

Both categories then share a parallel severity structure in the 4th character:

Two payer-relevant details:

For the severe-with-psychotic-features codes (F32.3/F33.3), the documentation rules deserve their own page — see our guide to depression with psychotic features.

• F32 (single episode) — this is the patient’s first major depressive episode.
• F33 (recurrent) — the patient has a history of at least one prior major depressive episode separated from the current one by a period of remission.

• History-taking drives revenue integrity. If the intake assessment never asks about prior depressive episodes, every patient defaults to F32 — and when a records review later surfaces a documented prior episode, the payer can question the diagnostic workup behind the claim. Recurrence belongs in the psychiatric history section of every initial evaluation (the work billed under 90791 ).
• Severity characters need anchors. “Severe” in the code should correspond to documented functional impairment, symptom counts, or standardized measure scores (e.g., a PHQ-9 in the severe range) in the chart — not just clinical impression. Treatment plans that tie severity to measurable findings survive utilization review; see our guide to comprehensive depression treatment plans.

Bipolar coding overview: F31

F31 is the block’s most structurally complex category. The FY2026 tabular organizes it around the current episode:

The category-level Includes note covers bipolar I disorder, manic-depressive illness, and seasonal bipolar disorder; cyclothymia is explicitly excluded (Excludes2) and codes to F34.0.

The most common error is F31.9 overuse. Bipolar disorder, unspecified carries the same specificity problem as F39: a patient in active treatment has a current episode, and the chart almost always documents its polarity and severity. F31.9 on a continued-stay review for residential or PHP care gives the reviewer nothing to anchor medical necessity to. The second most common error is forgetting that bipolar II has its own code (F31.81) — coding bipolar II as F31.9 or as a depressive episode under F32/F33 misrepresents the diagnosis and the risk profile.

Note also the relationship between F30 and F31: a single manic episode with no prior history codes to F30.-, while any manic episode in a patient with prior mood episodes belongs in F31. The F30 category’s Excludes1 note bars coding F30 with F31, F32, or F33.

• F31.0 — current episode hypomanic
• F31.10–F31.13 — current episode manic, without psychotic features (unspecified/mild/moderate/severe)
• F31.2 — current episode manic, severe with psychotic features
• F31.30–F31.32 — current episode depressed, mild or moderate
• F31.4 — current episode depressed, severe, without psychotic features
• F31.5 — current episode depressed, severe, with psychotic features
• F31.60–F31.64 — current episode mixed
• F31.70–F31.78 — in remission (partial/full, by most recent episode type)
• F31.81 — bipolar II disorder
• F31.89 — other bipolar disorder
• F31.9 — bipolar disorder, unspecified

Persistent mood disorders: F34

F34 covers chronic mood pathology that runs below or alongside the episodic disorders:

A frequent documentation question: a patient with persistent depressive disorder who develops a superimposed major depressive episode (“double depression”) can carry both F34.1 and the applicable F32/F33 code when both conditions are documented — there is no Excludes1 barrier between them in the FY2026 tabular.

• F34.0 — Cyclothymic disorder. Chronic mood instability with hypomanic and depressive periods that never meet full episode criteria. Tabular inclusion terms include cyclothymia and cyclothymic personality.
• F34.1 — Dysthymic disorder. The home of persistent depressive disorder — the tabular’s inclusion terms explicitly list it, along with dysthymia and depressive neurosis. This is the correct code for chronic low-grade depression lasting years rather than discrete episodes.
• F34.81 — Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD). The pediatric diagnosis marked by chronic irritability and severe recurrent temper outbursts. For child and adolescent programs, F34.81 is the answer to “what’s the DMDD code” — and its placement under persistent mood disorders reflects the chronicity requirement built into the diagnosis.
• F34.89 / F34.9 — other specified and unspecified persistent mood disorders.

Depression NOS: F32.9 vs. F32.A

Here is the update that separates current mood-disorder pages from stale ones. Effective with the FY2022 code set (October 1, 2021), ICD-10-CM added F32.A — Depression, unspecified. We verified the addition by comparing the CMS FY2021 and FY2022 code files: F32.A appears in FY2022, not FY2021. In the FY2026 tabular:

That re-indexing matters. Before FY2022, charted “depression NOS” defaulted to F32.9 — a code whose official title asserts major depressive disorder. Since FY2022, documentation that says only “depression” or “depressive disorder,” without establishing MDD, belongs at F32.A, and “depression NOS” indexes there. The distinction:

Pages and EHR code lists that predate FY2022 still funnel everything to F32.9 — quietly upcoding depression screens into MDD claims. For the full disambiguation of F32.A against F32.89 and F32.81, see our other-depression code guide.

Two adjacent codes complete the boundary-setting. Depressive symptoms that are a reaction to an identifiable stressor and don’t meet episode criteria belong with the adjustment disorders (F43.2-) — the F32 category lists adjustment disorder as an Excludes2. And depression caused by a physiological condition codes to F06.31/F06.32 with mandatory code-first sequencing — see our F06.3 guide.

• F32.A carries the inclusion terms “Depression NOS” and “Depressive disorder NOS.”
• F32.9 carries the inclusion term “Major depression NOS.”

• Use F32.9 when MDD, single episode, is the established diagnosis but severity is not documented.
• Use F32.A when depression is documented but major depressive disorder has not been established — common with screening-driven referrals and primary-care handoffs.

Documentation and billing at behavioral health facilities

Mood disorder codes anchor a large share of behavioral health claims — they are among the most common primary diagnoses supporting psychiatric PHP/IOP programs, residential mental health treatment, and outpatient psychotherapy billed under 90837 and 90834. What payers look for behind the code:

Facilities running mood-disorder programming at multiple levels of care benefit from an EHR that carries the FY-current ICD-10-CM code set, prompts for specificity at diagnosis entry, and ties diagnosis codes into treatment plans and claims automatically. ’s EHR is built for exactly this workflow. Denial patterns tied to unspecified codes are also trackable on the billing side — see revenue cycle management.

Request a Demo to see how diagnosis, documentation, and billing connect in one system: contact us.

• Specificity that progresses. Intake on F32.9 or F39 is defensible; week six on the same unspecified code is a red flag. Diagnosis review belongs in every treatment plan update, and the working code should sharpen as the clinical picture does — see treatment plans for how diagnosis, goals, and interventions tie together.
• Severity-to-level-of-care alignment. A PHP claim anchored on F32.0 (mild, single episode) invites a medical-necessity question: why does mild depression need a partial-hospital day? The severity character should match the acuity narrative in the utilization review documentation.
• Recurrence and remission accuracy. F33.41/F33.42 (recurrent, in partial/full remission) are the codes that legitimately support step-down and maintenance phases of care — using them correctly tells a coherent episode-of-care story across levels.
• Measurement-based care. Standardized measures administered on a schedule give the severity characters an objective backbone and give reviewers something concrete to approve.

Sources: FY2026 ICD-10-CM code set and tabular list ↗ (CMS, effective Oct 1, 2025); ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting, FY2026 ↗; CDC NCHS ICD-10-CM ↗. Accessed June 2026.

Reference tables

Common questions

Official sources

• FY2026 ICD-10-CM code setcms.gov
• ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reportingcms.gov
• CDC NCHS ICD-10-CMcdc.gov