A two-year follow-up study and prospective evaluation of the DSM-IV axis V.

A six-month cohort of general adult psychiatric inpatients was followed for up to two years to evaluate outcome and contrast the validity of DSM-IV measures of adaptive functioning-the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), the Social and Occupational Functioning Assessment Scale (SOFAS), and the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale (GARF). Detailed data, including quality-of-life ratings and DSM-IV axis I and V codes, were collected by interview and self-report questionnaires for 53 study participants. Patients' retrospective ratings of the care they received were not predictive of outcome.