Why screening for depression in primary care is impractical.

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

1. Depression Screening and Health Outcomes in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2017
   Pooled it
2. There are no randomized controlled trials that support the United States Preventive Services Task Force Guideline on screening for depression in primary care: a systematic review.BMC medicine · 2014
   Pooled it
3. The effects of implementing a point-of-care electronic template to prompt routine anxiety and depression screening in patients consulting for osteoarthritis (the Primary Care Osteoarthritis Trial): A cluster randomised trial in primary care.PLoS medicine · 2017
   Trial
4. Cost-Effectiveness of Perinatal Depression Screening: A Scoping Review.Applied health economics and health policy · 2025
   Article
5. Development of the MIND: a Screening Measure Assessing Mental Health Treatment Needs.The journal of behavioral health services & research · 2022
   Article
6. Patient perspectives on quality of care for depression and anxiety in primary health care teams: A qualitative study.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2021
   Article
7. Screening for depression in children and adolescents: a protocol for a systematic review update.Systematic reviews · 2021
   Article
8. Screening for Depressive Mood During Acute Chikungunya Infection in Primary Healthcare Settings.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018
   Article
9. Effects of the 2009 USPSTF Depression Screening Recommendation on Diagnosing and Treating Mental Health Conditions in Older Adults: A Difference-in-Differences Analysis.Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy · 2018
   Article
10. Featured Canadian Research on Child, Adolescent, and Young Adult Psychiatry.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2017
    Article
11. Yield and Efficiency of Mental Health Screening: A Comparison of Screening Protocols at Intake to Prison.PloS one · 2016
    Article

Corrections and comments

• Comment on
  Recommendations on screening for depression in adults.2013

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

Abstract

PubMed holds no abstract for this paper.

Indexed as