Social disability and outcome in schizophrenic patients.

To gain more insight into the social (as opposed to clinical) outcome of schizophrenia, a unidimensional, heirarchical scale was constructed. Items were selected from the Disability Assessment Schedule (DAS)--a new instrument, used in the WHO Collaborative Study on the Assessment and Reduction of Psychiatric Disability. Data were derived from the Dutch cohort participating in this study, which consisted of patients with a first life-time episode of a non-affective, functional psychosis. Patients were followed-up during the first three years of their illness, and analyses of the stability and reliability of the scale proved to be satisfactory. It was subsequently used to characterise the course of social disability.