The aim this presentation is present the results of the preparatory studies were presented at an international consensus conference, a multi-stage, iterative, decision-making and consensus process that took place 12–14 May 2015 in Barcelona, Spain. At this consensus conference, schizophrenia experts from different countries worldwide and working in a broad range of professions decided which ICF categories should be included in the first version of the ICF Core Sets for schizophrenia.

Four preliminary studies intend to capture the researcher's perspective, the patient's perspective, the expert's perspective and the clinician's perspective, respectively, on the most relevant aspects of functioning of persons living with schizophrenia. The final definition of ICF Core Sets for schizophrenia have been determined by integrating the results of preliminary studies in a consensus conference with international expert.

The experts included 97 categories in the Comprehensive ICF Core Set and 25 categories in the Brief ICF-CS. The specific categories of each ICF-CS are shown in this presentation. The Comprehensive ICF-CS can guide multidisciplinary assessments of functioning in persons with schizophrenia, and the brief version is ideal for use in both clinical and epidemiological research, since it includes a small and practical number of categories, but sufficiently wide for finding utility in clinical assessments.

ICF-CS are being designed with the goal of providing useful standards for research, clinical practice and teaching, and it will stimulate research and will improve understanding of functioning, health and environmental factors in schizophrenia.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.