Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS)
What It Measures
The Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) is a short questionnaire that shows how much a mental health difficulty is getting in the way of daily life. It asks five simple questions about a person's ability to work, manage a household, take part in social activities, enjoy private leisure time, and maintain close relationships, with the person rating how much each area is affected.
Mundt and colleagues developed the WSAS in 2002 as a brief self-report measure of functional impairment, and it's now used across mental health, chronic pain, and outpatient settings to track how conditions like depression, anxiety, and OCD affect daily functioning. Scores below 10 generally suggest minimal impairment, 10–20 suggests significant functional impairment, and above 20 suggests more severe impairment — useful benchmarks for treatment planning and monitoring change over time.
