Psychotherapy and Antidepressant Use After the US Preventive Services Task Force-Recommended Depression Screening

Following national guidelines recommending routine depression screening for adults, researchers found that people experiencing emotional distress became more likely to receive talk therapy and less likely to use antidepressants alone. At the same time, these routine checkups did not lead to unnecessary treatments for individuals who reported no distress. For readers, this suggests that standard mental health screenings can help guide people toward supportive counseling options without increasing unneeded medication use.