Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:1259-1264
Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association
The broad role of Ego Functions Assessment
L Bellak and M Sheehy
The need for accurate assessment and accountability is of paramount
professional concern to psychiatry. The authors state that ego functions
assessment (EFA) is reliable and valid quantitative technique, useful for
these purposes in a variety of psychiatric settings. They suggest the
various uses of EFA in five such areas: Professional Standards Review
Organizations (PSRO) and third-party funding, forensic psychiatry and legal
responsibility, the monitoring of psychotherapeutic drugs, research and
planning in psychotherapy, and psychological testing. The authors condlude
the EFA is a dynamically sophisticated and easily learned form of mental
status examination and that its refinement by extensive use and
simplification is likely.
