Functional outcome assessment in bipolar disorder: A systematic literature review

OBJECTIVES: Functional impairment is an important driver of disability in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) and can persist even when symptomatic remission has been achieved. The objectives of this systematic literature review were to identify studies that assessed functioning in patients with BD and describe the functional scales used and their implementation. METHODS: A systematic literature review of English‐language articles published between 2000 and 2017 reporting peer‐reviewed, original research related to functional assessment in patients with BD was conducted. RESULTS: A total of 40 articles met inclusion criteria. Twenty‐four different functional scales were identified, including 13 clinician‐rated scales, 7 self‐reported scales, and 4 indices based on residential and vocational data. The Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and the Functional Assessment Short Test (FAST) were the most commonly used global and domain‐specific scales, respectively. All other scales were used in ≤2 studies. Most studies used ≥1 domain‐specific scale. The most common applications of functional scales in these studies were evaluations of the relationships between global or domain‐specific psychosocial functioning and cognitive functioning (eg, executive function, attention, language, learning, memory) or clinical variables (eg, symptoms, duration of illness, number of hospitalizations, number of episodes). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this review show growing interest in the assessment of functioning in patients with BD, with an emphasis on specific domains such as work/educational, social, family, and cognitive functioning and high utilization of the GAF and FAST scales in published literature.