Doctors' Group Wants All Teens Screened For Depression

The allegedly influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which sets guidelines for doctors on a host of health issues, is now recommending that all US teens be screened for depression once a year by a doctor. The recommendation is even to be applied to teens who show no signs of depression symptoms.

"Calonge stressed that the panel does not want its advice to lead to drug treatment alone, particularly antidepressants that have been linked with increased risks for suicidal thoughts. Routine depression testing should only occur if psychotherapy is also readily available, the panel said. Calonge said screening once yearly likely would be enough.

"The recommendations come at a pivotal time for treatment of depression and other mental health problems in children.

"Recently passed federal mental health equity legislation mandates equal coverage for mental and physical ailments in insurance plans offering both. The law is expected to prompt many more adults and children to seek mental health care.

"Yet at the same time psychiatrists specializing in treating children and teens are scarce. A separate report, also released Monday in the Pediatrics journal, says primary care doctors including pediatricians and family physicians will need to get more involved in mental health care."

This is simply stunning stuff. While I'm not a depression denier--I know all about teen depression from personal experience--I am simply stunned that an allegedly reputable group of doctors would recommend such wholesale screening when they know damn well that psychotherapy is often inaccessible (for a number of reasons) and that doctors, with zero expertise in mental health care, will simply steer kids towards anti-depressants which have very rocky track records in terms of efficacy and safety. It's one thing to recommend screening for kids at-risk of depression, but this is just so over-the-top that I almost don't know what to say.

But whatever. This is the new America where sadness of any kind is unacceptable and where we will all soon be, to rip off Jello Biafra, jogging for the master race. It's all very good new for the pharma companies, however.

Ironically, I happened to talk with a friend of mine last night who is a pediatric nurse and he said, "Doctors have become drug pushers."

I sadly agreed with him.