The onset of psychotic illness has a differential impact on various domains of an individual?s functioning. Despite the emergence of various neurobiological, developmental, and psychosocial hypotheses regarding vocational impairment of persons suffering from affective disorders, inconsistent findings, possible due to methodological limitations, have delayed a clear description of the vocational strengths and weaknesses of these individuals. It is the goal of this dissertation project to first determine vocational profiles of 139 bipolar and 87 major depressive individuals suffering The onset of psychotic illness has a differential impact on various domains of an individual?s functioning. Despite the emergence of various neurobiological, developmental, and psychosocial hypotheses regarding vocational impairment of persons suffering from affective disorders, inconsistent findings, possible due to methodological limitations, have delayed a clear description of the vocational strengths and weaknesses of these individuals. It is the goal of this dissertation project to first determine vocational profiles of 139 bipolar and 87 major depressive individuals suffering from their first psychotic episode and then identify various factors associated with the variation in vocational functioning of these individuals. The 226 individuals have been participating in the Suffolk County Mental Health Project and followed for four years after their first hospitalization for psychosis. Based on the data collected as part of this epidemiological project, vocational narratives will be constructed. Using qualitative data analyses techniques a coding system will be developed representing vocational functioning of all individuals participating in this study. Quantitative data analyses techniques will then be employed to determine the factors associated with the variance in participants? vocational functioning. A comprehensive description of long-term vocational functioning of psychotic affective patients will provide a valuable resource for all future studies on vocational functioning of psychiatric patients, whereas the discovery of factors associated with vocational functioning of psychotic affective patients could innovate vocational rehabilitation.
