US task force recommends screening for depression

The US Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of healthcare experts that advises the federal government on health care, is urging that doctors routinely screen all adult patients for depression.

This is an upgrade of its 1996 recommendations, which found insufficient evidence to support or rule out routine screening. The panel still finds insufficient evidence to recommend for or against routine screening for depression in children and adolescents, despite a prevalence of the illness of up to 2% in children and 4.5% in adolescents. Clinicians should, however, continue to …