Top 10 mental health diagnoses in 2021

Mental illness impacts millions of people every year. Despite the growing awareness of mental health issues, many patients still face stigma around their experiences and diagnoses.  

According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), about 1 in 5 American adults experience mental illness every year -- more than 42 million people. Roughly 1 in 20 American adults experience serious mental illness. A serious mental illness is one that causes significant impairment, interfering with or limiting at least one major life activity. 

It’s crucial to understand the mental health crisis so that we can develop new clinical preventive measures, interventions, devices and procedures to help those living with psychological conditions or symptoms. 

Definitive Healthcare tracks millions of inpatient mental health diagnoses at hospitals. With May being Mental Health Awareness month, we thought we’d compile a list of the top 10 mental health diagnoses by total volume of diagnoses. 

10 most common mental health diagnoses in 2021 

Fig. 1 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare ClaimsMx product for the 2021 calendar year through September. Data is accurate as of April 2022.  

What was the top diagnosis? 

The top diagnosis is ICD-10 code F329, "major depressive disorder, single episode, unspecified." It had 2,698,606 diagnoses in 2021. 

Anxiety disorders, mood disorders and diagnoses related to substance use took up nine of the top 10 spots. ICD-10 code F0390, unspecified dementia without behavioral disturbance, was another, with 1,028,540 diagnoses.  

Of the top ten diagnoses, substance use diagnoses occupied four spots (codes F17210, F17200, F1010, F1290) for a total of 3,277,335 million diagnoses – about 30% of the top 10 diagnoses.  Mood disorders had two spots (codes F329, F319) and also accounted for about 30% of total diagnoses.  

Lastly, anxiety disorders held three spots (codes F419, F411, F4310), with 3,361,023 diagnoses, or about 31% of the top 10 diagnoses.  

Were there more primary or secondary diagnoses? 

Across the top 10 codes, there were 10,899,414 total diagnoses. Interestingly, most (99%) of these diagnoses were secondary diagnoses, with primary diagnoses only accounting for 1% of the total diagnoses.  

In particular, both codes related to nicotine dependence (F17210 and F17200) had no primary diagnoses.  

The difference in primary and secondary codes indicates that healthcare providers diagnose many psychiatric conditions in conjunction with another condition, likely being the reason for a patient's initial visit.  

In fact, many psychiatric patients have more than one psychiatric diagnosis. A study by Rhode Island Hospital found that people living with PTSD and bipolar disorder, which both made the top 10 diagnoses above, had the most diagnoses.   

How did the COVID-19 pandemic impact mental health? 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health worsened across populations. A study published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity found evidence of a multitude of mental health effects, including: 

• Decreased psychological well-being across the general public 
• Patients with COVID-19 displayed high levels of PTSS and higher levels of depression 
• Higher level of psychiatric symptoms among healthcare workers  
• Patients with pre-existing psychiatric symptoms experienced worsened psychiatric symptoms  

Telehealth and mental health  

Although mental health worsened during the pandemic, telehealth also expanded in mental healthcare. Telehealth significantly increases access to mental health services. In particular, telehealth reduces the stress and anxiety around seeking care, improves the accessibility of services for people living with neurological or physical impairments and provides a private and engaging environment for patients. 

Learn more 

Mental health will undoubtedly remain an incredibly prevalent and essential area of healthcare as we strive toward better psychological health. Healthcare commercial intelligence can help you stay current with industry trends and developments.   

To explore more about how you can utilize Definitive Healthcare's intelligence to create new paths to commercial success, start a free trial.