Functioning The GAS and GAF have been ‘a standard’ to assess global functioning. The social and occupational functioning scale: SOFAS,16 which is a functional derivative of the GAF, has been described only sporadically. They are indeed quite simple and user-friendly but might be too simple to capture functional status. Ongoing efforts in this respect include the personal and social performance scale: PSP29 which modelled the SOFAS, and the functional assessment for comprehensive treatment in schizophrenia: FACT-Sz30 which is similar to the GAF but more detailed and more widely differentiates patients. It has however been infrequent that functional scales, in contrast to symptomatic rating scales, have constituted the primary outcome measure in studies for schizophrenia,31-34 although global functioning appears to serve as a heuristic outcome that may represent ‘the net effect of everything’ in patients. Some studies on child and adolescent schizophrenia used the Children’s...