Functional Impairment in Psychiatric Outpatients

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Abstract
Three studies were conducted to explore the relationship between mood and functional impairment in psychiatric out-patients. 1. Twenty patients were individually matched with 20 volunteers referred by general practitioners. Both groups were interviewed at length. 2. Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale, and a functional scale derived from the interviews, were administered to 75 psychiatric and 50 orthopaedic out-patients. The mood scale showed better discrimination. 3. A composite function/mood scale was tried on a further series of 40 psychiatric out-patients. A correlation of 0.7 between self-assessment and assessment by spouse for both mood and functional items suggests that it is a reliable as well as a valid measure of neurotic disability. The method appears suitable for both clinical and research purposes, although the practical value of discriminating between mood and function remains to be established.

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