A two-year follow-up study and prospective evaluation of the DSM-IV axis V.

A six-month cohort of general adult psychiatric inpatients was followed for up to two years to evaluate outcome and contrast the validity of DSM-IV measures of adaptive functioning-the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS), and the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale (GARF). Detailed data, including quality-of-life ratings and DSM-IV axis I and V codes, were collected by interview and self-report questionnaires for 53 study participants. Patients' retrospective ratings of the care they received were not predictive of outcome. Adaptive functioning at discharge was predictive of both severity of illness and social functioning at follow-up. The SOFAS had the strongest concurrent and predictive validity, the latter both for length of initial inpatient stay and two-year outcome.