in DSM–IV–TR, impairment in social or occupational functioning and unexpected severe emotional or behavioral symptoms occurring within 3 months after an individual experiences a specific identifiable stressful event, such as a divorce, business crisis, or family discord.

The event does not meet the traumatic stressor criteria of experiencing or witnessing actual or threatened death or serious injury or a threat to the physical integrity of oneself or others, which can lead to acute stress disorder or posttraumatic stress disorder. Symptoms may include anxiety, depression, and conduct disturbances and tend to remit following elimination of the stressors or acquisition of new coping skills. In chronic adjustment disorder, the symptoms last more than 6 months due to either the persistence or the severity of the stressor. DSM–5 retains the same symptom criteria for adjustment disorder but reconceptualizes it as a heterogeneous array of stress-response syndromes that occur after exposure to a distressing traumatic or nontraumatic event, rather than as a residual category for distress that does not meet criteria for a more discrete disorder (as in DSM–IV–TR).