Category · F60-F69 block
F62 — Enduring personality changes, not attributable to brain damage and disease
Terminology note: F62 requires a definite, lasting change from a person's previously normal personality pattern, following a specific catastrophic experience or psychiatric illness — the opposite of F60/F61's lifelong pattern evident since adolescence.
What is this category?
F62 covers a personality change that is new relative to the person's own baseline: F62.0 follows a catastrophic experience (such as captivity, torture, or a similarly extreme, prolonged stressor), and F62.1 follows a severe psychiatric illness. In both, the person had a recognisably different, previously normal personality before the precipitating event or illness, and the change has persisted since.
Core diagnostic concept
The decisive test for F62 is the presence of a clear personality baseline that has genuinely changed — a definite before-and-after — following a specific, identifiable precipitant, rather than a pattern that has simply been present since adolescence (which would instead point to F60/F61).
Key diagnostic features
- A previously normal, different personality baseline
- The person had a recognisably different personality before the precipitating event or illness — this is not a lifelong pattern.
- A specific, identifiable precipitant
- F62.0 follows a catastrophic experience (e.g. captivity, torture, prolonged extreme stress); F62.1 follows a severe psychiatric illness.
- The change is enduring
- The new pattern has persisted since the precipitating event or illness, not resolved as the person recovered.
How to weigh evidence
These learning labels are teaching aids, not official ICD-10 terminology (see Sources and Method).
- supports A documented, previously different personality, followed by a definite, lasting change in personality pattern beginning at a specific, identifiable point after a catastrophic experience or severe psychiatric illness.
- consistent not decisive A person reports 'not feeling like themselves' during an acute illness episode itself, without describing a lasting change persisting afterward.
- raises alternative The pattern described has actually been present since adolescence, with no clear previously-different baseline or specific precipitant.
- contradicts or weakens No previously different personality baseline can be established, or the change resolved rather than enduring.
- missing and necessary to ask What the person's personality was like before the precipitating event or illness, and whether the change has genuinely persisted since.
Diagnostic boundary
F62 requires a documented, previously different personality baseline and a definite, enduring change following a specific catastrophic experience or psychiatric illness — not a pattern present since adolescence.
Full comparisons:
Duration and course
Minimum duration: The change must be enduring — persisting well beyond the acute period of the precipitating event or illness, though no single universal duration threshold is fixed.
Course: Typically stable once established, similar to a personality disorder, but distinguished by its later, definite onset relative to a documented baseline.
Included presentations
- Enduring personality change after catastrophic experience (e.g. captivity, torture, prolonged extreme stress).
- Enduring personality change after psychiatric illness (a lasting personality change following a severe psychiatric episode).
Exclusions and distinguishing presentations
| If this is true instead… | Consider | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A personality pattern that has actually been present since adolescence, with no previously different baseline | F60 | F62 specifically requires a documented change from a previously different personality; a lifelong pattern points to F60/F61 instead. |
Four-character subtypes (orientation)
A learner should check for a documented, previously different personality baseline before applying F62 — without that before-and-after contrast, a difficult personality pattern more likely belongs under F60 or F61.
- F62.0 — Enduring personality change after catastrophic experience
- Change following captivity, torture, or similarly extreme, prolonged stress. (in_depth)
- F62.1 — Enduring personality change after psychiatric illness
- Change following a severe psychiatric illness. (in_depth)
- F62.8 — Other enduring personality changes
- An enduring personality change not matching the named precipitants. (taught for orientation only, not separately assessed in this pilot)
- F62.9 — Enduring personality change, unspecified
- An enduring personality change identified but without enough information to specify the precipitant. (taught for orientation only, not separately assessed in this pilot)
External causes to check first
Categories in this block require that the disturbance is not better explained by another external cause listed below. These short capsules are reminders, not full teaching modules.
Boundary capsule — Pervasiveness and onset across F60-F63
A shared reasoning check for telling apart a specific personality disorder (F60), a mixed or troublesome personality disturbance not meeting a single F60 pattern (F61), a personality change with a definite later onset following a catastrophic experience or psychiatric illness (F62), and a recurrent impulse-control pattern that is not itself a pervasive personality disturbance (F63) — four categories that can all present with 'this person's behaviour causes problems for them and others' but that require different evidence about pervasiveness, timing of onset, and whether a genuine baseline personality can be documented.
What to check:
- Onset and course: has the pattern been present, essentially unchanged, since childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood (points toward F60/F61), or is there a documented, previously different personality baseline with a definite, later change following a specific catastrophic experience or a psychiatric illness (points toward F62)?
- Pervasiveness: does the pattern show up rigidly and inflexibly across most personal and social situations (points toward F60/F61/F62), or is it a single, recurrent behavioural cycle that is otherwise circumscribed, without evidence of a broader pervasive personality disturbance (points toward F63)?
- Fit to a specific pattern: does the presentation clearly and predominantly match one of the named F60 patterns (e.g. dissocial, emotionally unstable, dependent), or does it show troublesome features from several patterns without a clear single fit, or change episodically over time (points toward F61 rather than F60)?
- Distress and control: for a repeated, tension-then-relief behavioural cycle specifically, is it experienced as a struggle to resist a specific impulse, rather than as the person's stable, ordinary way of relating to others and the world?
A full personality assessment or a structured clinical interview, both of which are outside this capsule's scope and are needed before any of these classifications is used in real clinical practice.
Worked example — a definite change after a catastrophic experience
A 45-year-old, previously described by family as easygoing, sociable, and trusting, has shown a persistently different personality in the three years since being held captive for several months during a kidnapping: he is now guarded, socially withdrawn, and quick to perceive hostility in others' ordinary behaviour, a pattern that has not eased since his return.
- Step 1 — Establish the previous baseline: family describes him as easygoing, sociable, and trusting before the event.
- Step 2 — Identify the precipitant: captivity during a kidnapping, a catastrophic experience.
- Step 3 — Confirm the change is enduring: guarded, withdrawn, and suspicious for three years since, without easing.
- Conclusion — F62.0, Enduring personality change after catastrophic experience — the documented before-and-after contrast and the specific precipitant together support this over a lifelong personality disorder.
Interactive practice
- Type A Different, after the disaster Recognition / application · Foundation
- Type B Was he always like this? Boundary discrimination · Transfer
Retrieval prompts
Try answering each of these from memory before revealing where to check. Nothing you think or type here is sent or saved anywhere.
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State the two things that must both be established before F62 applies.
Reveal answer location
Check Duration and course, Diagnostic boundary, or the rapid revision card below — the cue you need is one of those, in this category's own already-authored wording.
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Name the two specific precipitants F62's subcodes distinguish between.
Reveal answer location
Check Duration and course, Diagnostic boundary, or the rapid revision card below — the cue you need is one of those, in this category's own already-authored wording.
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Explain why F62 is the opposite of F60 in terms of onset.
Reveal answer location
Check Duration and course, Diagnostic boundary, or the rapid revision card below — the cue you need is one of those, in this category's own already-authored wording.
These self-checks are a personal study aid only, visible to you on this page for this visit — they are not stored and do not affect your mastery dimensions.
Rapid revision card
F62: F62 requires a documented, previously different personality and a definite, enduring change following a specific catastrophic experience or psychiatric illness.
Decisive boundary cues:
- A documented previously-different baseline, plus a definite change after a specific precipitant -> weighs toward F62.
- No previously different baseline; the pattern has been present since adolescence -> weighs toward F60/F61 instead.
- A change that resolved rather than enduring -> does not meet F62's enduring requirement.
Duration/course: Must be enduring, persisting well beyond the acute period of the precipitating event or illness.
Nearest alternatives: f60, f61
Common mistake: Diagnosing a personality disorder from a change that actually began later in life, following a specific event, rather than recognising F62.
Retrieval prompt: Is there a documented, previously different personality, and a specific precipitant for this change?
(or use your browser's print function) Open full-page printable revision view →
Related glossary terms
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Enduring personality change
A definite and enduring change in a person's characteristic pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self, developing after exposure to catastrophic stress or a severe psychiatric illness, in a person with no previous personality disorder. Classified under F62, and distinguished from F60 by requiring a documented, previously different baseline and a definite later onset.
Source basis
WHO ICD-10 international classification structure and code/title (ICD-10 Browser, 2019 English release).
Original educational synthesis, informed by general published clinical-education understanding of ICD-10 F60-F69; no verbatim CDDG or DCR text is reproduced. See Sources and Method for the full policy.
Last reviewed: 2026-09-17. Full policy: Sources and Method.
Educational resource only. This page and its cases teach ICD-10 classification reasoning using fictional scenarios. It does not diagnose real people and should not be used to assess yourself or anyone else. A person's gender identity or sexual orientation is not itself a disorder. If you or someone you know is struggling with a pattern of behaviour, an urge you find hard to control, or distress related to discrimination or how you are treated by others, please seek prompt, respectful professional support.