F41.1 Generalized anxiety disorder

Billable/ Specific Code:

F41.1 is a billable/specific ICD-10-CM code that can be used to indicate a diagnosis for reimbursement purposes.

Clinical Information:

• A condition marked by excessive worry and feelings of fear, dread, and uneasiness that last six months or longer. Other symptoms of gad include being restless, being tired or irritable, muscle tension, not being able to concentrate or sleep well, shortness of breath, fast heartbeat, sweating, and dizziness.
• An anxiety disorder characterized by excessive and difficult-to-control worry about a number of life situations. The worry is accompanied by restlessness, fatigue, inability to concentrate, irritability, muscle tension, and/or sleep disturbance and lasts for at least 6 months.
• An anxiety disorder characterized by free-floating, persistent, and excessive worry for at least six months.
• Apprehension of danger and dread accompanied by restlessness, tension, tachycardia, and dyspnea unattached to a clearly identifiable stimulus.
• Apprehension or fear of impending actual or imagined danger, vulnerability, or uncertainty.
• Fear and anxiety are part of life. You may feel anxious before you take a test or walk down a dark street. This kind of anxiety is useful – it can make you more alert or careful. It usually ends soon after you are out of the situation that caused it. But for millions of people in the United States, the anxiety does not go away, and gets worse over time. They may have chest pains or nightmares. They may even be afraid to leave home. These people have anxiety disorders. Types include
  • panic disorder
  • obsessive-compulsive disorder
  • post-traumatic stress disorder
  • phobias
  • generalized anxiety disorder

  treatment can involve medicines, therapy or both.

• Feeling of distress or apprehension whose source is unknown
• Feeling or emotion of dread, apprehension, and impending disaster but not disabling as with anxiety disorders.
• Feelings of fear, dread, and uneasiness that may occur as a reaction to stress. A person with anxiety may sweat, feel restless and tense, and have a rapid heart beat. Extreme anxiety that happens often over time may be a sign of an anxiety disorder.
• Term was discontinued in 1997. In 2000, the term was removed from all records containing it, and replaced with anxiety disorders, its postable counterpart.
• Unpleasant, but not necessarily pathological, emotional state resulting from an unfounded or irrational perception of danger; compare with fear and clinical anxiety.
• Vague uneasy feeling of discomfort or dread accompanied by an autonomic response (the source often nonspecific or unknown to the individual); a feeling of apprehension caused by anticipation of danger. It is an alerting signal that warns of impending danger and enables the individual to take measures to deal with threat.

Approximate Synonyms:

• Anxiety disorder, generalized
• Generalised anxiety disorder
• Overanxious disorder
• Overanxious disorder of childhood

ICD-10: A Brief Synopsis

For disease reporting, the US utilizes its own national variant of ICD-10 called the ICD-10 Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). A procedural classification called ICD-10 Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) has also been developed for capturing inpatient procedures. The ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS were developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). There are over 70,000 ICD-10-PCS procedure codes and over 69,000 ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes, compared to about 3,800 procedure codes and roughly 14,000 diagnosis codes found in the previous ICD-9-CM.

The expansion of healthcare delivery systems and changes in global health trends prompted a need for codes with improved clinical accuracy and specificity. The alphanumeric coding in ICD-10 is an improvement from ICD-9 which had a limited number of codes and a restrictive structure. Early concerns in the implementation of ICD-10 included the cost and the availability of resources for training healthcare workers and professional coders.

There was much controversy when the transition from the ICD-9-CM to the ICD-10-CM was first announced in the US. Many providers were concerned about the vast number of codes being added, the complexity of the new coding system, and the costs associated with the transition. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) weighed these concerns against the benefits of having more accurate data collection, clearer documentation of diagnoses and procedures, and more accurate claims processing. CMS decided the financial and public health cost associated with continuing to use the ICD-9-CM was too high and mandated the switch to ICD-10-CM.