The British Journal of Psychiatry 141: 178-180 (1982)
© 1982 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Prognosis in chronic mental disability

R Morgan and S Gray

In a replication study three performance variables measured at the beginning of 200 patients' rehabilitation courses were combined to form an index to quantify the degree of initial disability. The Index score was significantly associated with the ten-year outcome, and hence has predictive value. With it a level of disability can be specified beyond which a patients' prospect of resettlement is predictably hopeless from the outset, despite prolonged and intensive rehabilitative efforts. On the other hand, many less disabled patients cannot achieve resettlement unless such efforts are made. There are, therefore, humanitarian and economic reasons for seeking to distinguish these two groups.