Functioning is the cornerstone of life - Assessing chronic impairment in social functioning

Impairment in social functioning is the fundament of almost all diagnoses of psychopathology. Intensive research has been performed associating clinical disorders with social dysfunctioning. As a result, psychopathology nowadays is not only defined by symptoms, but also by the level of impairment. To measure social functioning in patients with a clinical disorder, a large diversity of instruments has been designed. This paper describes which disorders have the highest negative influence on social functioning and aims to provide an overview of instruments that can be used to measure social (dys)functioning. Finally several implications are discussed and suggestions for future research are proposed.