Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Universal Or Indicated Screening In Primary Care?, Matthew Wintersteen, Md

Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Faculty Papers

To the Editor: In the November 2010 issue, Schmitt and colleagues (1) reported that the duration of visits increased when depression screening was conducted in primary care. This report is timely given recent recommendations for both adult and pediatric screening for depression in primary care. Schmitt and colleagues examined data representative of more than 641 million primary care visits in2005–2007 and found that when depression screening was documented in patients’ records, physicians’ time with patients increased significantly.