Functional impairment in depressed inpatients

The Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) was administered to 95 patients with major depression. The SIP includes 12 subscales, each representing a specific area of sickness-related dysfunction. To relate these measures to psychiatric symptoms, patients also completed a measure of depression severity. Consistent with earlier findings, there were high levels of functional impairment. Impairment was correlated with symptoms but, as noted elsewhere, functional status does not always parallel symptom severity. The SIP, widely used with medical disorders but, to our knowledge, underutilized to assess psychiatric patients, may provide more precise assessment of the impact of psychiatric disorders on the individual's daily life.