Doctors urged to screen teens for major depression [USAToday.com]

Samantha Sangenito 9/10/154:00 AM

Doctors should screen teenagers for major depression, a federal advisory group said Monday, but only if their young patients have access to mental health professionals who can diagnose them, provide treatment and monitor their progress.

That’s a big “if.”

Mental health services are in short supply for anyone, but especially teens, said Jeffrey Lieberman, a professor and chairman of psychiatry at theColumbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

States have cut billions of dollars from mental health programs in recent years, according to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors.

Only 36% to 44% of children and adolescents with depression receive treatment, according to draft recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a panel of experts who advise the federal government on medicine and health policy.

[For more of this story, written by Liz Szabo, go to http://www.usatoday.com/story/...depression/71706428/]

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Screening for depression is important but it needs to take into account the ACEs that may be resulting in the depression. As things currently stand our current screening recommendations are for screening and we should refer for counseling. However, that is not available in most areas and what this actually amounts to is increase in SSRI prescriptions. Depression screening is highly promoted by pharmaceutical companies and is profit motivated.

ACEs screening (or trauma screening) should be a part so we don't try to treat symptoms of trauma with drugs that do not address underlying etiology.

9/10/156:39 AM

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