Measuring social and occupational functioning of people with bipolar disorder: A systematic review

Previous literature has focused on impaired social and occupational functioning in Bipolar Disorder (BD), however this ignores people who may be functioning well or even exceptionally. This paper presents the first systematic review of how functioning is measured and the range of functioning observed in BD to aid applied research and practice in this area. Identified measures from studies reporting use of a social and/or occupational functioning measure in BD were organised according to frequency of use over the last 10 years, resulting in six measures (Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST), Social and Occupational Functioning Scale (SOFAS), Social Adjustment Scale (SAS)), Social Functioning Scale (SFS) and LIFE-Range of Impaired Functioning (LIFE-RIFT). Descriptive statistics of sample scores were extracted and pooled to provide cross-study values for each measure. Around 16% of individuals with BD can be estimated to function at a high level, defined as those falling within two standard deviations of the mean score on each measure. Evidence of a ceiling effect for some measures suggests that BD functioning may have been underestimated during measure development. Future research is needed to further understand higher functioning in people with BD, and factors which may support this.