Other psychoactive substance abuse with withdrawal delirium

This code signifies a pattern of harmful use of a psychoactive substance (other than alcohol, opioids, cannabis, sedatives/hypnotics, cocaine, or stimulants) leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, specifically complicated by the presence of withdrawal delirium. Withdrawal delirium is characterized by a disturbance in attention and awareness, developing over a short period, and representing an acute change from baseline attention and awareness, accompanied by an additional disturbance in cognition.

Apply this code when documentation clearly indicates a diagnosis of abuse of an unspecified or "other" psychoactive substance, and the patient is experiencing delirium directly attributable to the withdrawal process from that substance. This requires explicit physician documentation of both the substance abuse and the withdrawal delirium.

• Ensure the documentation specifies "abuse" rather than "dependence" for the substance use disorder.
• Verify that the delirium is explicitly linked to withdrawal from an "other psychoactive substance" and not another cause.
• Sequence this code as the primary diagnosis if it is the reason for the encounter, or as a secondary diagnosis if it is a co-morbidity impacting care.