THE SCHEDULE FOR ASSESSMENT OF PSYCHIATRIC DISABILITY - A MODIFICATION OF THE DAS-II

SUMMARY Measurement of Disability is one of the off-shoot projects of the major multicentred study on ‘Factors Affecting Course and Outcome of Schizophrenia’ being held at Madras, Vellore and Lucknow. As part of this study, modification of the Disability Assessment Schedule (II) was carried out at the Madras centre. Certain items of the DAS were deleted and the rest were regrouped into 4 main areas of personal, social, occupational and global disability. This modified instrument called the Schedule for Assessment of Psychiatric Disability (SAPD) was administered to 30 patients each of the 3 groups of psychoses, neurotics and diabetics. It was found that the SAPD effectively discriminated the psychotic group from the other 2 groups. The authors recommend this instrument for measurement of disability in an outpatient psychiatric population.