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All adults, including pregnant women and new mothers, should be screened for depression as a routine part of health care, a government advisory group recommended Tuesday. Depression is a common public health problem, and screening simply involves health workers asking about certain symptoms even if patients don't mention them. (1/26)

The recommendation, expected to galvanize many more health providers to provide screening, comes in the wake of new evidence that maternal mental illness is more common than previously thought; that many cases of what has been called postpartum depression actually start during pregnancy; and that left untreated, these mood disorders can be detrimental to the well-being of children. (Belluck, 1/26)

Primary care doctors should screen all adults for depression, an expert panel recommended Tuesday. The task force for the first time said screening benefits specific groups, including older adults, pregnant women and new mothers. In the past, there wasn't strong enough evidence to weigh in on whether depression screening helps or hurts these groups. (Szabo, 1/26)

The panel evaluated research from recent years and concluded that depression continues to be an important enough disease that it needs to be incorporated as part of primary care for all adults. It gave depression screening its “B” rating, meaning that there is a high certainty of a moderate benefit to be derived from screening—or a moderate certainty that the benefit is “moderate to substantial.” (Burton, 1/26)

The task force, which assesses the harms and benefits of screening programs and makes recommendations accordingly, said that screening pregnant and postpartum women for depression would have a "moderate net benefit." At the same time, the panel acknowledged that, given the small risk that treatment with antidepressants could harm a developing fetus, pregnant women with depression should be offered a "range of treatment options," including cognitive behavioral therapy, which has been found effective in relieving depressive symptoms. (Healy, 1/26)

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says the benefits of treatment, even medication that may affect fetuses, far outweigh any potential risks.The harm associated with screening adults and treating them with cognitive behavioral therapy is "small to none," the task force said in its final statement, posted this week in JAMA. The statement also calls for mental health specialists, primary-care providers and health systems to work collaboratively to manage depressive disorders. (Rice, 1/26)

Pregnant women and new mothers need more attention when it comes to screening for depression, according to recommendations issued Tuesday by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. ... What's new this time is the special shout-out for pregnant women and new moms. They need special recognition, the task force says, because of evidence showing that they can be accurately diagnosed and successfully treated, and because untreated depression harms not only the mother, but her child as well. (Silberner, 1/26)

Nancy Byatt, medical director at the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project for Moms (MCPAP for Moms) and an assistant professor of psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology at UMass Medical School, said the new recommendations “are an incredibly important step to have depression care become a routine part of obstetrical care.” She added: “Depression in pregnancy is twice as common as diabetes in pregnancy and obstetric providers always screen for diabetes and they have a clear treatment plan. The goal [here] is that women are screened for depression [during pregnancy and postpartum] and they are assessed and treated and this becomes a routine part of care just like diabetes.” (Zimmerman, 1/26)

A federal task force's recommendation that primary care doctors screen all adult patients for depression was surprising but a “very, very positive development," says Henry Chung, a psychiatrist who is chief medical officer at the Montefiore Health System's care management organization here. ... Montefiore has been linking depression screenings with primary care for the past three years through a federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services innovation grant to fund integration of behavioral health into its primary care services. (O'Donnell, 1/26)