What the CDDR actually is, how it differs from the ICD-11 codes you might already know, and a live search tool – wired to the same WHO ICD-11 API credentials this course already has configured – so you can look up any diagnosis directly, not just the four covered by ClinCog's cases.

What "CDDR" means

CDDR stands for Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Requirements for ICD-11 Mental, Behavioural and Neurodevelopmental Disorders – WHO's clinical diagnostic manual for this chapter of ICD-11, published as its own volume and launched globally on 8 March 2024. Every "Diagnostic criteria reproduced verbatim from World Health Organization…" block you see on the evaluation pages in this course is sourced from it.

CDDR vs. MMS – two different things wearing the same code

ICD-11 has two related but distinct layers for mental disorders. The MMS (linearization for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics) is the layer used for official coding and statistical reporting – each category gets a brief definition, just enough for classification. The CDDR is the clinical companion: for the same codes, it adds essential features, boundaries with normal variation (the diagnostic threshold), differential diagnosis, and how presentation shifts across development, gender, and culture. When you search a code below, what the ICD-11 API returns by default is the MMS entry – useful for confirming a code and its short definition, but it is not a substitute for reading the full CDDR text for that disorder before making a diagnostic judgment call.

ICD-11 itself was adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2019 and became the reporting basis WHO member states use as of January 2022. The CDDR volume for the mental-disorders chapter followed in 2024 as a separate, far more detailed clinical publication built on that same classification.
Official links
WHO – Clinical descriptions and diagnostic requirements for ICD-11 mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders (full manual) ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics – official browser
Reference
  • World Health Organization. (2024). Clinical descriptions and diagnostic requirements for ICD-11 mental, behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders. World Health Organization. https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/375767
  • Kestel, D., & Reed, G. M. (2024). Global launch of the ICD-11 Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Requirements (CDDR). World Psychiatry, 23(3), 310–311. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21223
Search ICD-11 directly
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How to use it – quick tutorial
  1. Type a term or a code. Either works – try a disorder name ("panic disorder"), a symptom ("insomnia"), or a code you already have ("6A70"). Results start appearing after a couple of characters.
  2. Read the result list carefully. ICD-11 is a fine-grained classification – a single search often returns the disorder itself, several more specific subtypes, and related-but-different categories side by side. The indentation in the results reflects the classification's hierarchy.
  3. Click a result to select it. Its code and title appear just below the search box, confirming exactly what you picked.
  4. Then go find the CDDR text for it. The search box gives you the code and the brief MMS definition – for the actual diagnostic write-up (essential features, thresholds, differential diagnosis) use that code to jump to the right page in the CDDR manual linked above, or in the official browser.
If the box stays empty after you type, check your connection and try again. Instructors running their own copy can set their WHO credentials on the Adopt with your own keys page.