To the Editor: Iorfino and colleagues1 reported that “two in three young people with emerging mental disorders did not experience meaningful improvement in social and occupational functioning during two years of early intervention care”. Their sample was drawn from two headspace sites. This sounds alarming, especially considering that the study is exemplary in its longitudinal design, large sample size, and robust statistical analyses. Nevertheless, clinicians should be mindful of making too much of these results.
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- 1. Iorfino F, Carpenter JS, Cross SPM, et al. Social and occupational outcomes for young people who attend early intervention mental health services: a longitudinal study. Med J Aust 2022; 216: 87–93. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2022/216/2/social‐and‐occupational‐outcomes‐young‐people‐who‐attend‐early‐intervention
- 2. Burgess PM, Harris MG, Coombs T, Pirkis JE. A systematic review of clinician‐rated instruments to assess adults’ levels of functioning in specialised public sector mental health services. Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2017; 51: 338–354.
- 3. Burns T, Patrick D. Social functioning as an outcome measure in schizophrenia studies. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2007; 116: 403–418.
- 4. Morosini PL, Magliano L, Brambilla L, et al. Development, reliability and acceptability of a new version of the DSM‐IV Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS) to assess routine social functioning. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2000; 101: 323–329.
- 5. Kwan B, Rickwood DJ. A systematic review of mental health outcome measures for young people aged 12 to 25 years. BMC Psychiatry 2015; 15: 279.
I thank David Wootton (Service Manage headspace Nowra) for encouraging me to explore the headspace outcome measures.
I am a headspace clinician currently working for a headspace centre.