Panel: Doctors Should Focus On Preventing Depression In Pregnant Women, New Moms

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has released new draft recommendations saying that physicians should screen pregnant women and new moms to identify those who are at risk of becoming depressed, so they can be treated before they show symptoms and a diagnosis of depression can be averted.

The recommendations say physicians should look for these risk factors: a history of depression, current depressive symptoms (like sadness, hopelessness about the future, lack of sleep, etc.), and socioeconomic risk factors like being low income, very young or a single parent.

"We do know that women who've had depression before or have family members who have depression, a professor of medicine and psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center, and a volunteer member of the task force.