The Los Angeles Times (2/8, Healy) “Science Now” blog reports that yesterday, the US Preventive Services Task Force “recommended that physicians routinely screen children between 12 and 18 for depression and have systems in place either to diagnose, treat and monitor those who screen positive or to refer them to specialists who can.” The USPSTF’s recommendations now “bring depression screening for adolescents into line with recently issued depression-screening recommendations that apply to adults.”

Reuters (2/8, Seaman) reports that the recommendations were published online Feb. 8 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

According to CNN (2/8, Storrs), the USPSTF has decided that “for children younger than 12, there is not enough evidence around which tests work and which treatments are effective to recommend that doctors screen all individuals in this age group.” For children 12 and older, the USPSTF supports “the use of antidepressant medication for treating adolescents who have depression,” in addition to cognitive behavioral therapy or a combination of CBT and medication.

Related Links:

— “Adolescents should be screened for depression too, federal panel says,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2016.

The Boston Globe (2/7, Kowalczyk) reported on the phasing out of “conventional hospital” nurseries in maternity wards as “part of a national movement designed to promote breastfeeding, bonding, and parenting skills by having mothers and healthy newborns room together around-the-clock.” Many new mothers and nurses are not happy with “rooming in,” however, contending that “brief breaks in a nursery will not harm breast feeding in the long run, and that rest is important to keep mothers healthy and prevent serious problems like postpartum depression.”

Related Links:

— “Maternity wards are moving away from nurseries,” Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe, February 7, 2016.

ABC World News (2/6, story 6, 1:40, Vega) reported on the backlash and “fierce” reaction the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is facing following last week’s recommendation that “women should refrain from drinking alcohol, saying the risk to babies is too high.” ABC News correspondent Gloria Riviera explained that “the new guidelines hit a nerve, because they go further, telling health professionals to advise a woman to stop drinking if she is trying to get pregnant or not using birth control with sex.” Many women took to social media to express outrage, “calling the advice ‘patronizing and reactionary and sexist.’” While the CDC told ABC News that it was “sorry some people took offense at our communications,” the agency stands by its advice.

The New York Times (2/5, Victor, Subscription Publication) reported that last week’s report “focused on the possibility that children may develop fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, estimating that 3.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 who drink alcohol while not using birth control risked exposing their infants to the disorders.” The report also pointed out that “about half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned and most women do not know they are pregnant until four to six weeks into the pregnancy.” Reacting to criticism of the report, CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat, MD, said during a Friday interview, “We weren’t as clear as we had hoped to be.”

Related Links:

— “C.D.C. Defends Advice to Women on Drinking and Pregnancy,” Daniel Victor, New York Times, February 5, 2016.

Modern Healthcare (2/5, Conn, Subscription Publication) reported that CMS has proposed “modifying a key Code of Federal Regulations privacy rule covering patient records for drug and alcohol-abuse treatment, and by default, behavioral health.” The proposed change “would maintain the requirement that patient consent be obtained prior to disclosing or exchanging medical records that would identify, directly or indirectly, an individual who has been diagnosed or treated for a substance-abuse disorder.” But the change would also allow other health-related information to be disclosed without consent “if permissible, under other applicable laws.” The changes would allow a “broad general consent form” to be signed.

Related Links:

— “Proposed privacy rule changes may leave substance-abuse patients vulnerable,” Joseph Conn, Modern Healthcare, February 5, 2016.

HealthDay (2/4, Preidt) reports that research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests “depression increases the risk of heart disease and stroke in older adults.” Investigators studied “more than 7,300 seniors in France with no history of heart disease, stroke or dementia at the start of the study period” who “were assessed again two, four and seven years later.”

Neurology Advisor (2/4, Stiles) reports that the investigators “found that adults 65 years and older who had high levels of depression on one, two, three, or four occasions had 15%, 32%, 52%, and 75% greater risk, respectively, of experiencing heart disease or stroke during the 10 years of the study.

Related Links:

— “Depression May Boost Seniors’ Risk for Heart Disease, Stroke,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 4, 2016.