Routine depression screening in primary care: feasibility and acceptability.

R. Zuckerbrot and her colleagues in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University write that adolescent depression has a cumulative prevalence of 20% by the conclusion of the teenage years, but only one fourth to one third of adolescents with depression receive treatment. The premise of their study recently published in Pediatrics suggests that performing depression screening as a formal aspect of routine pediatric care could go a long way in addressing the problems of under-diagnosis and under-referral.

The researchers suggest that barriers to pediatricians' identifying depression include a lack of ample appointment time; issues of reimbursement in managed care plans; and a lack of confidence to arrive at a psychiatric diagnosis. An appropriate, time-efficient screening device is crucial. In light of these barriers, this research examined the "feasibility" …