Glossary
Terms used across the F20-F29 block, including a note on common misuse where relevant. This glossary is for rapid clarification while you read — it is not a second textbook.
- "Schizophrenia" (common misuse)
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In everyday language, "schizophrenia" is sometimes wrongly used to mean a "split personality" or simply unpredictable behaviour. Clinically and in this classification, it refers to a specific pattern of sustained psychotic disturbance, unrelated to having multiple personalities.
Related categories: F20
- Adaptive functioning
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The practical skills a person uses to meet the everyday demands of independent living — communication, self-care, home living, social skills, use of community resources, self-direction, and similar domains — assessed relative to what is typically expected at a person's age and cultural context. A concurrent deficit in adaptive functioning, alongside subnormal intellectual functioning, is one of the two criteria required for an intellectual disability classification (F70-F73); intellectual functioning alone is never sufficient.
Also seen as: adaptive behaviour
Avoid using this term to mean: an optional or secondary consideration — it is one of two criteria that must both be met, not a supporting detail
- Affect
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The observable expression of emotion (facial expression, tone of voice, gesture) at a given moment, as distinct from mood, which refers to a more sustained emotional state.
- Agoraphobia
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Fear of open or crowded spaces, travelling away from home, or situations from which escape might be difficult or help unavailable if things go wrong. Classified under F40.0.
Avoid using this term to mean: a general term for any fear of leaving the house — agoraphobia specifically involves fear tied to escape-difficulty and help-availability, not simply a preference for staying home
Related categories: F40
- Anhedonia
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A marked loss of interest or pleasure in activities that a person would normally find enjoyable — one of the core symptoms of a depressive episode, alongside depressed mood and reduced energy.
Also seen as: loss of interest or pleasure
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for simple boredom or a temporary lull in motivation
- Attention (as a clinical feature)
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The ability to direct, focus and sustain concentration on a stimulus or task. A marked, fluctuating disturbance of attention alongside disturbed consciousness is a defining feature of delirium, distinguishing it from disorders where attention is relatively preserved.
Related categories: F05
- Autism spectrum
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An umbrella description, used in everyday and some clinical language, for the range of presentations sharing the core autism triad (social interaction, communication, restricted/repetitive behaviour) across different levels of support need and cognitive/language ability. ICD-10 itself does not use a single 'spectrum' code — it separates childhood autism, atypical autism, and Asperger syndrome as distinct fourth-character categories under F84.
Also seen as: autistic spectrum
Avoid using this term to mean: a specific ICD-10 diagnostic code — ICD-10 has no single 'autism spectrum disorder' category; use the specific F84 subcategory instead
Related categories: F84
- Baby blues
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Mild, transient low mood, tearfulness, and emotional lability in the first one to two weeks after childbirth, resolving without treatment. Not itself a disorder, and not coded under F53.
Also seen as: postpartum blues
Avoid using this term to mean: an interchangeable term for postnatal depression or postpartum psychosis — the baby blues is transient and self-limiting, while F53.0 and F53.1 require a genuine, more persistent or severe disturbance
Related categories: F53
- Behavioural impairment (fourth character)
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The shared fourth-character axis used across every category in the F70-F79 block (.0 no or minimal impairment, .1 significant impairment requiring attention or treatment, .8 other, .9 without mention), recording whether a significant behavioural disturbance is also present. This is an axis independent of the severity grade itself — a significant behavioural impairment does not, by itself, make a case more or less severe on the intellectual/adaptive grading.
Avoid using this term to mean: a marker of severity grade — it is a separate, independent axis from the F70-F73 grading itself
- Binge eating
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An episode of eating an objectively large amount of food within a discrete period, accompanied by a sense of loss of control over eating during the episode. Recurrent binge eating followed by compensatory behaviour is central to bulimia nervosa (F50.2).
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for any large meal, such as overeating at a celebration — binge eating specifically involves a subjective loss of control, not simply eating more than usual on one occasion
Related categories: F50
- Borderline intellectual functioning
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General intellectual functioning below average but above the threshold for an intellectual disability classification (approximately IQ 70-84), without a matching adaptive-functioning deficit severe enough to meet the F70 threshold. Not itself classified as a disorder in ICD-10; the necessary contrast for correctly excluding F70 when only a below-average score, without a matching adaptive deficit, is present.
Also seen as: borderline functioning
Avoid using this term to mean: an ICD-10 disorder code — borderline intellectual functioning is a descriptive contrast, not a classification of its own
Related categories: F70
- Bulimia nervosa
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An eating disorder marked by recurrent episodes of binge eating with a sense of loss of control, followed by recurrent compensatory behaviour intended to prevent weight gain (such as self-induced vomiting, laxative misuse, or excessive exercise), typically occurring at a normal or above-normal body weight. Classified under F50.2.
Avoid using this term to mean: a disorder that requires being underweight — bulimia nervosa typically occurs at normal or above-normal weight, unlike anorexia nervosa
Related categories: F50
- Cognitive domain
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A distinct area of mental functioning that can be separately assessed, such as memory, language, attention, planning/executive function, or visuospatial ability. Classifying organic mental disorders often depends on which domain(s) are affected and whether the pattern is isolated or multi-domain.
- Compulsion (psychiatric)
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A repetitive behaviour or mental act that a person feels driven to perform, usually in response to an obsession, in order to reduce the anxiety or distress the obsession causes. The relief is typically brief, and the underlying obsession-compulsion cycle then repeats. Central to obsessive-compulsive disorder (F42).
Also seen as: obsessional ritual, compulsive ritual
Avoid using this term to mean: a general synonym for any repeated habit — a compulsion specifically functions to reduce the anxiety caused by an obsession, not simply a preferred routine
Related categories: F42
- Conduct disorder
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A repetitive, persistent pattern of dissocial, aggressive, or defiant behaviour exceeding ordinary childhood mischief or age-appropriate adolescent rebelliousness — a description of a behavioural pattern, never a judgment on a child's character or worth.
- Confabulation
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The unintentional production of fabricated or distorted memories, without the intent to deceive, sometimes seen alongside significant memory impairment. Confabulation is a possible accompanying feature, not itself a required or defining criterion of any single category.
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for lying — confabulation is not intentional deception
- Conversion (symptom)
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The older term for a dissociative symptom specifically affecting motor or sensory function — for example, a sudden loss of movement in a limb or a loss of sensation — occurring without an adequate organic explanation and not intentionally produced. Classified under F44 (e.g. F44.4, F44.6).
Also seen as: conversion disorder (historical term)
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for malingering — a conversion symptom is genuine and involuntary, not consciously produced for an external incentive
Related categories: F44
- Craving
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A strong subjective desire or compulsion to use a substance. One of the six criteria contributing to a dependence-syndrome classification, and often prominent during withdrawal as well.
Also seen as: strong desire/compulsion to use
Avoid using this term to mean: proof of dependence on its own — craving is one of six criteria, and three or more together are usually required
Related categories: F10, F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, F16, F17, F18, F19
- Cyclothymia
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A chronic instability of mood, persisting for years, with numerous periods of mild depression and mild elation, neither ever reaching the severity of a full hypomanic, manic, or depressive episode. Classified under F34.0 as a persistent, subthreshold mood disorder rather than a mild form of bipolar disorder.
Also seen as: cyclothymic disorder, cyclothymic temperament
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for bipolar disorder — cyclothymia specifically never reaches full-episode severity in either direction; a pattern that does is bipolar, not cyclothymia
- Delirium
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An acute, transient disturbance of consciousness and attention, with a fluctuating course over hours to days, usually caused by an underlying physical illness, intoxication, or medication effect. Delirium is distinguished from dementia mainly by its acute onset and fluctuation, not by confusion alone.
Also seen as: acute confusional state
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for dementia — the two differ in onset and course
- Delirium tremens
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The classic name for alcohol withdrawal state with delirium — a short-lived but potentially life-threatening confusional state, usually accompanied by marked tremor, autonomic overactivity, and sometimes vivid hallucinations or delusions, occurring on withdrawal from sustained heavy alcohol use.
Also seen as: DTs (informal)
Avoid using this term to mean: a general term for any withdrawal confusion — it refers specifically to alcohol withdrawal state with delirium
Related categories: F10
- Delusion
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A fixed, false belief that is firmly held despite clear evidence to the contrary, and that is not accounted for by the person's cultural or religious background.
- Dementia
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A syndrome, usually of chronic or progressive course, in which there is decline in memory and at least one other cognitive domain (such as language, planning or judgement) severe enough to impair everyday functioning, occurring with clear consciousness. Dementia is a syndrome that can arise from several different underlying diseases, not a single diagnosis.
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for normal ageing or occasional forgetfulness
- Dependence syndrome
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A cluster of behavioural, cognitive, and physiological phenomena that develop after repeated substance use, in which use of that substance takes on a much higher priority than other behaviours that once had greater value. Classically established when three or more of six criteria (strong desire/compulsion, difficulty controlling use, tolerance, a physiological withdrawal state, progressive neglect of alternative interests, and continued use despite clear harm) have been present together within the past year.
Also seen as: addiction (informal), substance dependence
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for simply using a substance regularly or frequently — regular use alone does not establish dependence without the fuller criteria cluster
Related categories: F10, F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, F16, F17, F18, F19
- Developmental period
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The span of childhood and adolescence during which intellectual and adaptive functioning are still developing, conventionally understood as ending in early adulthood. An intellectual disability classification (F70-F73) requires onset during this period; a similar-looking decline in functioning that instead appears after a previously typical developmental course, later in life, points toward an acquired dementia (F00-F03) rather than an intellectual disability.
Avoid using this term to mean: a precise, fixed age cutoff — it is a conventional period, not a single specified birthday
- Developmental regression
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A definite loss of previously acquired skills (language, social, motor, or self-care) following a period of apparently normal development. Its presence and timing is the decisive feature separating Rett syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder from childhood autism, which by definition shows no such preceding normal period.
Also seen as: regression, developmental loss
Related categories: F84
- Diagnosis of exclusion
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A classification reached only after other, more specific possibilities have been actively considered and ruled out or found inapplicable for lack of information — not one reached by default because a specific possibility was never checked. Chapter V's residual categories, including F99 and each block's own unspecified category, are diagnoses of exclusion in this sense: they follow, rather than replace, genuine differential reasoning.
Also seen as: exclusionary classification
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for "I am not sure, so I will pick the residual option" — the exclusion itself must actually have taken place
- Disorders of intellectual development
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ICD-11's renamed and relocated term for the classification territory ICD-10 labels “mental retardation” (F70-F79), reflecting the same shift in preferred terminology seen in DSM-5's “intellectual disability.” Referenced here as classification-literacy context: this application follows ICD-10's actual codes and titles for classification accuracy, while noting the terminology has since moved on.
Avoid using this term to mean: an ICD-10 code or title — this is ICD-11 terminology, noted for context, not the classification this application follows
- Dissociation
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A disruption in the normally integrated functioning of memory, identity, perception, or consciousness, such that one or more of these functions becomes separated from the others, often in close relationship to a stressful event and without an adequate organic explanation. When this disruption becomes clinically significant and persistent, it is classified under F44.
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for deliberately faking or 'zoning out' casually — clinically significant dissociation is an involuntary, genuine disruption, not a conscious choice or ordinary distractibility
Related categories: F44
- Dysthymia
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A chronic, low-grade depressive symptom pattern persisting for years, never reaching the severity or discreteness of a full depressive episode. Classified under F34.1 as a persistent, subthreshold mood disorder rather than a mild episodic one.
Also seen as: persistent depressive symptoms, dysthymic disorder
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for a mild single depressive episode — dysthymia is defined by chronicity and subthreshold severity together, not mild severity alone
Related categories: F34
- Echolalia
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The repetition of words or phrases spoken by another person, either immediately or after a delay, without necessarily using them communicatively in the usual sense. It can appear as part of the communication abnormality seen in some presentations of F84.
Related categories: F84
- Encopresis
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The repeated, voluntary or involuntary passage of stools in inappropriate places, once a child would ordinarily be expected to have bowel control. Classified as nonorganic (F98.1) only once a physical or neurological cause has been actively assessed and ruled out, not merely assumed absent.
Related categories: F98
- Enduring personality change
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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.
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for a lifelong personality disorder — F62 specifically requires evidence of a different personality before the catastrophic experience or illness, and a definite change afterward, not a pattern present since adolescence
Related categories: F62
- Factitious disorder
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The intentional production or feigning of symptoms or disabilities, either physical or psychological, in the absence of any external incentive, apparently for the purpose of assuming the sick role. Classified under F68.1, and distinguished from malingering by the absence of an external incentive such as compensation or avoiding an obligation.
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for malingering — factitious disorder has no external incentive behind the feigned symptoms, while malingering is motivated by a specific external gain
Related categories: F68
- Flashback
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The common informal name for a residual and late-onset psychotic disorder following hallucinogen use: a brief, spontaneous recurrence of perceptual disturbances experienced during earlier intoxication, occurring well after use and without any further use.
Also seen as: residual and late-onset psychotic disorder (formal term)
Avoid using this term to mean: evidence of ongoing or recent substance use — a genuine flashback occurs specifically in the confirmed absence of further use
Related categories: F16
- Gender incongruence
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A marked and persistent incongruence between an individual's experienced gender and the sex assigned at birth. ICD-10 classified this territory under F64 (Gender identity disorders) within the mental-disorders chapter; ICD-11 substantially revised this, relocating gender incongruence out of the mental-disorders chapter entirely and into a chapter on conditions related to sexual health.
Avoid using this term to mean: evidence that gender identity itself is a mental disorder — this classification-literacy term describes how ICD-10 categorised this territory and how ICD-11 has since moved away from that framing, not a clinical claim that a gender identity is pathological
Related categories: F64
- Habit and impulse disorder
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A disorder characterised by repeated acts that have no clear rational motivation, generally harm the person's own interests or those of others, and are described as involving a rising sense of tension before the act and a sense of relief or gratification during or immediately after it. Classified under F63 (e.g. pathological gambling, pathological stealing, trichotillomania).
Avoid using this term to mean: a description of any repeated behaviour that a person struggles to change, such as an ordinary habit — F63 specifically requires the tension-then-relief cycle and the absence of a clear rational or gain-based motivation
Related categories: F63
- Hallucination
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A perceptual experience (in any sensory modality) that occurs without an external stimulus but is experienced as real.
- Harmful use
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A pattern of psychoactive substance use that is causing demonstrable damage to physical or mental health, without meeting the fuller criteria cluster required for dependence syndrome. A distinct threshold from dependence, not merely a lesser degree of it.
Also seen as: substance abuse (older/informal term)
Avoid using this term to mean: a milder synonym for dependence syndrome — the two are distinguished by which criteria are actually present, not by severity alone
Related categories: F10, F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, F16, F17, F18, F19
- Hyperkinetic disorder
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ICD-10's term for a disorder combining inattention with overactivity and impulsiveness, evident before age 6 and pervasive across more than one setting. Overlaps with, but is not identical to, DSM-5/ICD-11's broader 'attention deficit hyperactivity disorder' (ADHD), which permits a predominantly-inattentive presentation without significant hyperactivity.
Also seen as: ADHD (related but not identical term)
Avoid using this term to mean: a simple synonym for ADHD without noting the narrower ICD-10 threshold
Related categories: F90
- Hypomania
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A milder, sustained elevation of mood and increased activity that is a clear change from a person's usual baseline, but without the marked functional impairment, need for hospitalisation, or psychotic features that would make it mania.
Also seen as: hypomanic episode, hypomanic state
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for mania — hypomania is specifically the milder, non-impairing point on the same gradient; a description of an ordinary good day or a brief burst of enthusiasm
- Insight (clinical)
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The degree to which a person recognises that their experiences (such as unusual beliefs or perceptions) may reflect an illness rather than external reality. Insight can vary and is not itself a classification criterion, but is often noted educationally.
- Intellectual disability
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The modern preferred clinical and educational term (used in DSM-5, and in ordinary clinical practice since the mid-2010s) for the classification territory ICD-10 labels “mental retardation” (F70-F79): significantly subnormal general intellectual functioning together with concurrent deficits in adaptive functioning, with onset during the developmental period. Used throughout this block in person-first language (“a person with an intellectual disability”), never as a label standing in for the person.
Also seen as: ID
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for borderline intellectual functioning, which does not meet the severity threshold for this classification
- Intelligence quotient (IQ)
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A standardized score summarizing performance on a test of general intellectual functioning, used in this block as one part — never the whole — of the evidence for an intellectual disability classification. The approximate ranges conventionally associated with each severity grade (F70 mild ≈ 50-69, F71 moderate ≈ 35-49, F72 severe ≈ 20-34, F73 profound < 20) are never sufficient on their own without a matching adaptive-functioning deficit.
Also seen as: IQ, IQ score
Avoid using this term to mean: a stand-alone basis for a severity grade — a score without a matching adaptive-functioning deficit does not support an F70-F73 classification
- Malingering
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The intentional production or exaggeration of symptoms, motivated by an external incentive (such as financial compensation, avoiding an unwanted obligation, or evading legal consequences). Not itself a mental disorder and has no ICD-10 F-code of its own; referenced here as the necessary contrast to F68.1 (factitious disorder) and to genuine, involuntary symptom presentations.
Avoid using this term to mean: a clinical diagnosis or an F-coded disorder — malingering is a description of motivation, not a mental disorder, and sits outside the classification entirely
Related categories: F68
- Mania
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A state of abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood accompanied by increased activity or energy, sufficient to cause marked functional impairment, require hospitalisation, or involve psychotic features. The most severe point on the elevated-mood gradient, above hypomania.
Also seen as: manic episode, manic state
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for ordinary high energy, enthusiasm, or a good mood
- Minority stress
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Chronic, socially-based stress experienced by members of a stigmatised minority group (such as discrimination, family or social rejection, or internalized stigma related to sexual orientation or gender identity), which can itself produce genuine psychological distress. Relevant to correctly distinguishing distress caused by minority stress from any implication that a sexual orientation or gender identity is itself a disorder (F66).
Avoid using this term to mean: a diagnosis or a disorder code — minority stress is a source of distress to consider and rule in as an explanation, not a classification of its own, and it does not imply the orientation or identity itself is disordered
Related categories: F66
- Mixed affective episode
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An episode in which manic and depressive symptoms occur together or alternate very rapidly within the same episode, rather than one pole cleanly followed by the other. Classified as F31.6 when it occurs within an already-established bipolar course, or F38.0 when it is a first-ever episode with no such course yet documented.
Also seen as: mixed episode, mixed features
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for rapid cycling between fully separate manic and depressive episodes over weeks or months — a mixed episode specifically involves both symptom sets present together or alternating within the same episode
- Mood-congruent (psychotic features)
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Delusions or hallucinations whose content fits the prevailing mood — for example, grandiose delusions during mania, or delusions of guilt, nihilism, or hypochondriasis during severe depression. Contrasted with mood-incongruent features, whose content does not fit the mood and which raise consideration of an independent psychotic illness.
Also seen as: mood-congruent psychotic symptoms
Avoid using this term to mean: a general synonym for 'psychotic features' without regard to whether the content actually matches the mood
- Negative symptoms
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A reduction or loss of normal functions — such as blunted affect, poverty of speech, apathy, and social withdrawal — as distinct from 'positive' symptoms like delusions and hallucinations, which are additions to normal experience.
Also seen as: deficit symptoms
Related categories: F20
- Non-dependence-producing substance
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A substance (such as a laxative, analgesic, antacid, vitamin, steroid/hormone, or specific herbal remedy) that does not produce the neuroadaptive tolerance/withdrawal pattern required for an F10-F19 dependence syndrome, even when persistently or excessively used. Persistent misuse of such a substance is classified under F55.
Avoid using this term to mean: a category defined by how hard the use pattern is to stop — it is defined by the substance's own pharmacological properties, not by the persistence of the use pattern
Related categories: F55
- Obsession (psychiatric)
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An unwanted, intrusive thought, image, or urge that recurs persistently, is recognised by the person as their own but as excessive, senseless, or distressing (ego-dystonic), and that the person generally attempts to resist or suppress. Central to obsessive-compulsive disorder (F42).
Also seen as: obsessional thought
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for a delusion — an obsession is recognised by the person as excessive or irrational (preserved insight), whereas a delusion is held as objectively true
Related categories: F42
- Oppositional defiant behaviour
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A milder pattern, usually seen in younger children, of markedly defiant, disobedient, and provocative behaviour without the more serious dissocial or aggressive acts that characterise other conduct disorders (F91.3).
Also seen as: ODD
Related categories: F91
- Panic attack
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A discrete episode of intense fear or discomfort that develops abruptly and peaks within minutes, accompanied by physical symptoms such as a racing heart, chest tightness, breathlessness, and a feeling of impending doom or loss of control. Recurrent, unexpected panic attacks with persistent worry about further attacks define panic disorder (F41.0).
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for any brief moment of anxiety — a panic attack specifically involves an abrupt, intense peak within minutes, not a gradual build of ordinary worry
- Parasomnia
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An abnormal behavioural or physiological event occurring during sleep or the sleep-wake transition, such as sleepwalking, sleep terrors, or nightmares. Sleep terrors (an abrupt NREM arousal with little or no recall) and nightmares (a vivid, well-recalled REM dream) are the two parasomnias distinguished in F51.
Avoid using this term to mean: an umbrella term used loosely for any night-time sleep complaint — insomnia and hypersomnia are disturbances of sleep quantity or quality, not parasomnias
Related categories: F51
- Personality disorder
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A severe disturbance in the characterological condition and behavioural tendencies of an individual, involving several areas of the personality, almost always associated with considerable personal and social disruption, and manifest since childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood. Classified under F60, with several named patterns (e.g. dissocial, emotionally unstable, dependent).
Avoid using this term to mean: a label for any unusual, unlikeable, or difficult personal trait — F60 requires a pervasive, stable, lifelong pattern causing significant impairment, not an isolated trait or a personality style someone simply dislikes
Related categories: F60
- Pervasive developmental disorder
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A group of disorders (F84) characterised by qualitative abnormalities in reciprocal social interaction and communication, together with a restricted, stereotyped, repetitive repertoire of interests and activities, present across all of a person's situations rather than confined to one setting.
Also seen as: PDD
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for 'specific developmental disorder' (F80-F83) — a specific developmental disorder affects one circumscribed skill area, while a pervasive developmental disorder involves the broader social/communication/behaviour triad
Related categories: F84
- Psychological factors affecting a diagnosed medical condition
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Psychological or behavioural factors (such as distress-driven treatment non-adherence, or anxiety exacerbating a physical symptom) judged to be adversely affecting the course, management, or outcome of an already-diagnosed physical disease. Coded under F54, always as an additional code alongside the disease's own code, never as a stand-alone diagnosis.
Avoid using this term to mean: a way to reclassify an unexplained physical symptom as psychological — F54 requires an actual, already-diagnosed physical disease; an unexplained symptom with no diagnosed disease belongs to the somatoform disorders (F45) instead
Related categories: F54
- Psychosis
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A general descriptive term for a mental state in which a person's grasp of reality is significantly disturbed — typically through delusions, hallucinations, or marked thought disorder. Psychosis is a feature that can occur across many different categories, not a diagnosis in itself.
Also seen as: psychotic episode, psychotic symptoms
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for 'schizophrenia' — psychosis is a broader descriptive term
- Puerperium
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The period following childbirth during which the body returns to its pre-pregnancy state, conventionally taken as up to about six weeks postpartum. Used to define the time window within which F53's mental and behavioural disorders must begin.
Also seen as: postpartum period
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for the ordinary baby blues — the puerperium is simply the time window; it does not by itself imply any disorder is present
Related categories: F53
- Reactive attachment disorder
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A contradictory or ambivalent pattern of social relatedness — fearfulness, hypervigilance, and poor peer interaction — evident before age 5 and specifically associated with a documented history of grossly inadequate care. The pattern reflects the caregiving environment a child experienced, never a flaw in the child.
Also seen as: RAD
Related categories: F94
- Residual category
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A classification code reserved for a genuine situation where a disorder (or, at the chapter level, a disturbance of some kind) is evident, but the information actually available does not support a more specific classification. Residual categories exist at more than one level of Chapter V's hierarchy: within a block (for example F09, F29, F89), and for the chapter as a whole (F99). They are never a convenience default for a vignette that simply takes more effort to work through.
Also seen as: unspecified category, not otherwise specified (NOS) category
Avoid using this term to mean: a shortcut for any vignette that looks brief or takes effort to classify — a residual category requires that specifying detail is genuinely, not merely apparently, unavailable
- Scholastic skills
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Academically-taught skills such as reading, spelling, and arithmetic. F81 covers specific developmental disorders in which one or more of these skills fails to develop at the expected level despite adequate schooling, general ability, and sensory function.
Also seen as: academic skills
Related categories: F81
- Separation anxiety
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Anxiety about separation from an attachment figure. A normal, expected feature of early childhood development; it becomes a disorder (F93.0) only when it is markedly atypical in degree for the child's developmental stage, persistent, and associated with significant functional impairment.
Related categories: F93
- Somatization
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The genuine experience and reporting of physical symptoms that are not adequately explained by an identifiable physical condition after appropriate medical investigation, often accompanied by persistent help-seeking despite negative findings and reassurance. Multiple, recurrent, changing somatization over years, across multiple organ systems, defines somatization disorder (F45.0).
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for 'imaginary' or feigned symptoms — the physical symptoms and distress in somatization are genuinely experienced, not consciously invented
Related categories: F45
- Specific developmental disorder
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A disorder (F80-F83) in which a specific skill area — speech and language, scholastic skills, or motor function — fails to develop normally from early childhood, with onset in infancy or childhood, a steady course, and a deficit not explained by inadequate opportunity to learn, by general intellectual level alone, or by a sensory or neurological condition that would directly account for it.
Avoid using this term to mean: a synonym for 'pervasive developmental disorder' — a specific developmental disorder affects one circumscribed skill area rather than the broader F84 triad
- Stereotyped behaviour
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Repetitive, seemingly purposeless movements or behaviour patterns — for example repetitive hand movements, insistence on sameness, or narrow, intense interests — that form part of the restricted/repetitive domain of the F84 triad and can also appear alongside intellectual disability.
Also seen as: stereotypy, stereotypies
- Sundowning
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A pattern, sometimes seen in people with dementia, of worsening confusion, agitation or disorientation in the late afternoon or evening. Sundowning describes a time-of-day pattern within an already-established, longer-standing disorder, and is not itself evidence of an acute, fluctuating delirium.
Avoid using this term to mean: proof of delirium — the pattern must be interpreted alongside the overall course and onset
- Thought insertion (and related passivity experiences)
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The experience that thoughts are being placed into one's mind by an external agency (related experiences include thought withdrawal, thought broadcast, and passivity of action/feeling — the sense that one's actions or feelings are controlled from outside).
Also seen as: passivity phenomena
Related categories: F20
- Tic
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An involuntary, sudden, rapid, recurrent, non-rhythmic motor movement or vocalization, serving no apparent purpose. Tics can usually be suppressed briefly with effort, are exacerbated by stress, and disappear during sleep.
Related categories: F95
- Tolerance
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A state in which increasing amounts of a substance are needed to achieve the effects originally produced by a lower amount, or in which continued use of the same amount produces a markedly diminished effect. One of the six criteria contributing to a dependence-syndrome classification.
Avoid using this term to mean: proof of dependence on its own — tolerance is one of six criteria, and three or more together are usually required
Related categories: F10, F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, F16, F17, F18, F19
- Withdrawal state
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A group of symptoms, of variable severity and clustering, occurring on absolute or relative withdrawal of a substance after repeated, and usually prolonged and/or high-dose, use of that substance. Onset, timing, and medical danger vary considerably by substance.
Also seen as: withdrawal syndrome, withdrawal symptoms
Avoid using this term to mean: a term implying identical danger across all substances — some withdrawal states carry genuine seizure/delirium risk (e.g. alcohol, sedatives/hypnotics) while others are distressing but not typically dangerous by themselves (e.g. opioids)
Related categories: F10, F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, F16, F17, F18, F19