DSM-5-TR® Diagnostic Criteria

Review by eFreeware

Diagnostic reference material is only useful when it is close at hand. A clinician moving between appointments, a researcher checking a criteria set, or a student trying to match symptoms to a classification usually needs the answer in seconds, not after a trip to a bookshelf or a search through a browser tab. The DSM-5-TR® Diagnostic Criteria app from the American Psychiatric Association Publishing is built for exactly that situation: a mobile companion to the full manual, meant to put the diagnostic material within reach wherever the work happens.

It is a paid app at $75, with no ads and no in-app purchases, and it carries a 4.1 average from 16 ratings and over 1,000 installs. The developer describes it as a concise companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision, and the app was released in May 2023, with an update in July 2026. That combination of a one-time price and an official publisher sets the tone for everything that follows: this is a professional tool, not a casual download.

What the reference actually contains

The app contains the full DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria and the revised classification. That means the material a practitioner would otherwise flip through in the printed manual is presented in a format designed for a phone or tablet screen. The developer describes a redesigned interface and improved presentation of tables and charts, which matters for a reference where a misplaced column or a cramped table can slow a lookup down.

Two viewing modes are available, and you can toggle between the diagnostic criteria and the classification. That distinction is more useful than it might sound: one mode answers the question of what a specific disorder requires, while the other gives the broader structure of how disorders are organized. Being able to switch between the two without leaving the app is the kind of small convenience that adds up over a working day.

ICD-10-CM codes are included and kept up to date, covering both clinical and administrative use. For anyone who has to record a code alongside a diagnosis, having that information in the same place as the criteria removes a step. The developer also notes the addition of Prolonged Grief Disorder to Section II, a new disorder for diagnosis, and more than 70 modified criteria sets with clarifications since the publication of DSM-5.

Search, bookmarks and the working tools

A reference app lives or dies by how quickly it gets you to the right entry. Search covers disorders, acronyms, codes, and symptoms. That last category is the one I would expect to matter most in practice, because a clinician often starts from what a patient reports rather than from a diagnostic label. Searching by symptom and landing on the relevant criteria set is the workflow this app is clearly designed around.

Around the search sit the tools that make repeated use practical. You can bookmark frequently used information and keep track of recently researched topics, which is useful when a caseload brings you back to the same handful of diagnoses. Highlighting key sections of text and adding notes for later reference are also included, so the app can accumulate your own annotations over time rather than staying a static document.

None of these features are unusual in a reference app, but they are the right ones. The value is in the combination: search to find, bookmark to return, highlight and note to mark what matters to your own practice. For a student working through coursework, the same tools support a different habit, marking the criteria sets that come up in study and revision.

Offline access and what it does not require

The app works offline, which is a meaningful detail for anyone who uses it in a setting where a connection is unreliable or simply unavailable. A reference that only works with a signal is a reference you cannot count on, and the developer has built this one to function without that dependency.

No sign-up, paid plan, or extra download is needed to use it. You pay once, and the app is yours to use. For a professional audience that already deals with subscription fatigue across the tools they rely on, a single purchase with no recurring commitment is a straightforward proposition.

The trade-off is the price itself. At $75 this sits well above the cost of a typical mobile app, and the decision to buy rests on whether you need the official criteria in a portable form often enough to justify it. The absence of ads and in-app purchases means there is nothing further to pay after the initial purchase, but the initial purchase is substantial.

Who this is built for

It is aimed at mental health practitioners, researchers, and students. A psychiatrist or other clinician who refers to diagnostic criteria during the working day is the most obvious fit, particularly one who wants the material available without carrying the full manual or depending on a network connection.

Researchers checking criteria sets or classification structure would find the same lookups useful, and students in psychiatry, psychology, or related training programs are a natural audience for a portable version of the classification they are learning. The app is a companion to the manual rather than a replacement for clinical training or judgment, and it assumes a reader who already knows what they are looking for.

Because the content is the official diagnostic material, the app's value is tied to the authority behind it. Anyone whose work involves citing or applying DSM-5-TR criteria has a reason to want the official version rather than a summary assembled by someone else. That is the case the developer is making, and it is a reasonable one for this audience.

A reference for clinicians who need it in hand

The DSM-5-TR Diagnostic Criteria app is a focused, single-purpose tool: official diagnostic criteria, classification, and ICD-10-CM codes, with search, bookmarks, highlights, notes, and offline access around them. It does not try to be anything broader, and for its intended audience that narrowness is a feature rather than a limitation. The 4.1 average from a small number of ratings suggests a generally positive reception, though the sample is too small to read much into.

The case for buying it comes down to frequency of use. A practitioner who consults diagnostic criteria regularly will find the $75 easier to justify than someone who needs the material only occasionally. Students may weigh it against the cost of the printed manual and decide based on how much of their study happens away from a desk.

If your work involves applying DSM-5-TR criteria and you want them available on your phone without a connection, this is the version to consider. If your need for the criteria is occasional or your budget is tight, the price is the main obstacle, and it is worth being clear-eyed about how often you would actually open it before committing.

What's new in version 1.10

Android SDK Updates.