title: The social and occupational functioning of outpatients from mental health services.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many authors stress the important correlation between disorders and social disability.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the project was the assessment of the occupational and relational social functioning of persons who suffer from different mental disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  During the 15 months of the project, enrollment was conducted among patients calling in to three outpatient psychiatric clinics in the Lower Silesia region in Poland. The study included persons (n = 185) at the age of 18-54 from five diagnostic groups, according to ICD-10: psychotic disorders (F2), affective disorders (F3), anxiety disorders (F4), eating disorders (F5) and personality disorders (F6). Functioning was evaluated using the Groningen Social Disabilities Schedule (GSDS II), the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS) and the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning (GARF).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The group which had the highest level of functioning with a disability consisted of persons with the F2 diagnosis (1.42, SD = 0.63), whereas persons with anxiety disorders had the lowest disability (0.72, SD = 0.59). The severity of psychopathological symptoms was indeed related to social functioning. There was a significant correlation between general social functioning (the overall GSDS score) and the number of episodes (cor = 0.289; p = 0.001), hospitalizations (cor = 0.352; p < 0.001) and days on leave (cor = 0.393; p < 0.001) for the sample as a whole.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The functional disabilities indicated within the majority of patients give strong arguments for introducing the diagnosis and therapy of these disabilities and implementation of them to the standards of psychiatric treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Wroclaw Medical University, Poland.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rymaszewska
authors.forename: Justyna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mazurek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008605:Mental Health Services; D008875:Middle Aged; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D011044:Poland; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012919:Social Behavior; D055815:Young Adult