Although screening for depression in primary care is recommended by US guidelines, there is no direct evidence that it improves outcomes. For that reason, guidelines in other countries, such as Canada, Germany, and the UK, have not advised screening. The previous Canadian guidelines considered this a weak recommendation, however, because it was due to lack of evidence, rather than significant evidence against screening.
Now, the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care has updated their guidelines with new information showing no benefit for screening, and they now consider it to be a strong recommendation.
“In the judgment of the task force, the recommendation against screening of all adults aged 18 years and older for depression using a questionnaire is strong, based on moderate-certainty evidence that screening probably has little to no impact on symptoms of depression or health-related quality of life from 1 trial, and very uncertain evidence on the impact of screening from 2 other trials.”
The task force was led by Eddy Lang at the University of Calgary, and the recommendation was published in CMAJ (the Canadian Medical Association Journal).
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This is basically the only good psych news I’ve ever seen come from canada. I’d say “let’s hope this is a trend” but people will keep dying while we wait around hoping, and I have zero reason to have any hope for anything nowadays.
What we need is revolution. People including children are being tortured and killed every single day. How many people have to suffer fates worse than death before we put our foot down and escalate? Psychiatry is EUGENICS in practice and it is GENOCIDE and I used to think the world actually cared about genocide but I guess not. I guess nothing is worth escalating over. Not abused children being blamed for their abuse and forced on drugs that crush their soul and turn the next thirty years of their lives into a drug-hazed slog through literal hell all while they continue to believe the lies that they’re diseased and this will be the best life they ever get.
They mustn’t get away with this shit.
Convening a panel of misguided psychiatrists isn’t going to fix a single fucking thing or help any of those children.
This shit is a crime against humanity for which gentle debate is insultingly sympathetic. There’s no “reforming” genocide for the better, and there’s no stopping genocide nonviolently. Wake the fuck up and SAVE THOSE KIDS rather than just talking about it.
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I wish MiA had a like button, good comment, Dead Soul, who I’m pretty certain went through psychiatry’s living hell, but is not going to be a Dead Soul.
Wow, two straight days of seemingly getting my non-hired, attempted thieving, computer hacking, Apple ID stealing, psychological gas lighting, psychologist, out of my phone and hopefully computer.
So my personal experience with the psych “profession” is they’re people who neurotoxic poison innocent people and send them into a living hell. Psychologists declare people they do not know, to be “w/o work, content, and talent” and “irrelevant to reality,” based upon the delusions of pastors who do not know the person, and lies from a cocain dealing p-dophile’s wife.
Then when that psychologically deluded psychiatrist stops listening to the pathological lying psychologist, he determines the non-medically trained psychologist misdiagnosed the patient, and weans the patient off the neurotoxins.
And in the end, the psychiatrist declares the entirety of his patient’s life to be “a credible fictional story,” since the psychiatrist had never even listened to anything his patient had said.
Then, decades later, because one’s work, which documents one’s own life. Because it is too truthful, for a non-clinical psychologist. That non-clinical psychologist hands over a take a percentage of gross thievery contract, combined with a conservatorship contract, disingenuously dressed up as an “art manager” contract. Which, of course, I refused to sign … and I did have to report him to my local police, due to 2 years of gaslighting.
Then that non-hired, attempted thieving psychologist hacks into my phone and computer, and literally steals my Apple ID.
So basically, the job of the psych industries is declaring innocent people’s lives to be “fictional,” and literally stealing people’s online identities.
But none of this legal. So I’m back to talking to my local police … and did (successfully or not?) also report my identity stealing, non-hired, computer hacking psychologist to the FBI.
Nonetheless, I agree, universal depression screening is a really unwise idea.
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This seems like about the amount of improvement you’ll get in the system if it’s only ever psychiatrists running things. Decades of the status quo (casually destroying humanity) and this is basically one of the only improvements.
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Depression Screening has a B grade in the US. It’s a pipeline to getting people on psych meds without anyone applying any thought with regards to a proper diagnostic procedure or alternate treatment approaches. Reading the actual text of the recommendation is interesting. Please note that they removed the entire part about accurate diagnosis, effective treatment and follow-up in 2023. In other words screen everyone regardless of being able to properly diagnose and treat! Ridiculous. Here’s the receipts:
2016 version: “The USPSTF recommends screening for depression in the general adult population, including pregnant and postpartum women. Screening should be implemented with adequate systems in place to ensure accurate diagnosis, effective treatment, and appropriate follow-up.”
Current: “The USPSTF recommends screening for depression in the adult population, including pregnant and postpartum persons, as well as older adults.”
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A “B” grade? I’d give it a big fat “F”!
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Oh I agree. I’ll be nicer than you, let’s say a D minus. I just found it funny and heartbreaking that they got rid of the most important phrasing in 2023. I think they just said to hell with accurate diagnosis and followup. The *important* thing is getting those prescriptions filled. It lays out the scam in black and white.
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I think it shows their true intent, which is NOT to be helpful to those they identify as “depressed.” I always refuse any psych screening I am offered. Nothing good can come of it.
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