Which tool assesses a patient's overall function and improvement over time during treatment?

The Clinical Global Impression (CGI) is a widely used tool in psychiatric settings that evaluates a patient's overall functioning and the degree of improvement over time throughout treatment. The CGI consists of two primary components: the CGI-Severity, which assesses the patient's current state of illness, and the CGI-Improvement, which tracks changes over time. This simple, yet effective, scale allows clinicians to gauge overall treatment effectiveness and monitor a patient's progress relative to their baseline condition. Its broad applicability and clarity make it particularly valuable for both clinical practice and research settings when assessing treatment outcomes.

In contrast, other tools like the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) primarily focus on assessing specific psychiatric symptoms rather than overall functioning, and the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) is also more symptom-focused, assessing both positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia. The Simpson-Angus EPS Scale is specifically designed to evaluate extrapyramidal symptoms caused by antipsychotic medications and does not measure overall patient functioning, making it less suitable for assessing overall improvement during treatment. This distinction highlights why the CGI is the ideal choice for assessing overall function over time.