An apparatus for detecting a frame transmission period in a CDMA mobile communication system supporting a discontinuous transmission mode. A first frame detector performs primary frame detection by calculating a signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) using traffic symbol energy, pilot symbol energy and noise energy measured for a predetermined time period, and comparing the SIR with a predetermined frame detection threshold value. A decoder calculates a symbol error rate (SER) by decoding symbols received for the predetermined time period. A second frame detector selects an SER threshold value according to frame detection information from the first frame detector, and compares the selected SER threshold value with the SER to determine whether a frame has been transmitted.