Psychometric properties of the Functional Remission-instrument in patients with early psychosis and later stadia of serious mental illness.
Poster C15, Wednesday, October%2010, 11:30%20am%20-%201:00%20pm, Essex%20Ballroom
Harm Gijsman1, Lonneke Slooter1, Agnes Scholing1; 1Pro Persona Mental Health
Functional recovery is increasingly important as a treatment goal for patients with psychotic disorders. There are many questionnaires that measure functional status, but there is no instrument to easily monitor functional remission in clinical practice. The Dutch National Remission working Group has developed such an instrument and named it Functional Remission-instrument (FR-instrument). The instrument enables the professional to score within one minute three areas (daily activities, housing, and social relations) on a three point scale (0=independent; 1=semi-independent; 2=dependent). This results in a total score of 0 to 6, where score 0 is considered functional remission. Method: We assessed the psychometric validation of the FR-instrument in 1525 patients in various stadia of severe mental illness, including early psychosis (n=462). We used relevant items from the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HONOS) and the Manchester Short Assessment of quality of life (MANSA). Results: The internal consistency for the early psychosis stadium was fairly good, and for the later stadia moderate. The inter-observer reliability was moderate. With regards to convergent validity there was a low correlation with the HONOS items on social functioning. With regards to divergent validity there was a low correlation with the HONOS items on symptoms. Patients in functional remission reported a higher quality of life on the MANSA. Discussion: The FR-instrument is well applicable in the early stadium of psychosis. The categorical result seems more suitable for reporting on groups of patients, while the dimensional score may support the evaluation of individual treatment.
Topic Area: Psychosocial Interventions