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Functional outcomes

What are functional outcomes in bipolar disorder?

Functional outcomes refer to aspects of general life and day-to-day function that may be impacted as a consequence of illness-related impairments. For example, symptom severity has been significantly associated with community functioning, including social functioning, work performance, and social skills. Impaired social cognition may impact on functional outcome in terms of maintaining efficient social interactions and independent living skills. Interventions to improve symptom severity or cognitive impairments may have additional benefit for general functional outcomes.

What is the evidence for functional outcomes in people with bipolar disorder?

Moderate quality evidence found only around 16% of people with bipolar disorder are estimated to function at a high level. There is less autonomy, poorer occupational, cognitive, financial, and interpersonal functioning, and fewer leisure activities reported in patients compared to people without the disorder.

High quality evidence finds poor cognitive ability across multiple domains is associated with poor general functioning. Moderate to low quality evidence finds a relationship between poor emotion identification and regulation and poor general functioning, particularly in people with more severe depressive symptoms.

November 2021

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Last updated at: 11:24 am, 1st November 2021
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Fact Sheet Technical Commentary
Tags:  Functioning

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