Outcome measures in psychiatry.

BACKGROUND there is a need for outcome measurement in Psychiatry. METHOD a literature Review was carried out. RESULTS a number of different methods for outcome measurement were identified; their depended on the aims of the outcome measurements, hence functional outcomes of services could be measured,including mumbers of patients returned to employment or education. Some tools could measure administrative outcomes of service; these include HONOS and HONOS-pbr, while symptom rating scales, some of which could be used by patients and some by clinicians would be used with individual patients to measure patient improvement. Recovery tools included measures of patient understanding and empowerment. DISCUSSION these different forms of outcome measurement are complementary, not mutually exclusive. CONCLUSION a range of outcome measures should be used in services, since all the above approaches complement each other. This methodology will give a global assessment of the efficacy of a mental health service in the real world.