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Published in: Systematic Reviews 1/2021

Open Access 01-12-2021 | Affective Disorder | Protocol

Screening for depression in children and adolescents: a protocol for a systematic review update

Authors: Andrew Beck, John C. LeBlanc, Kate Morissette, Candyce Hamel, Becky Skidmore, Heather Colquhoun, Eddy Lang, Ainsley Moore, John J. Riva, Brett D. Thombs, Scott Patten, Heather Bragg, Ian Colman, Gary S. Goldfield, Stuart Gordon Nicholls, Kathleen Pajer, Beth K. Potter, Robert Meeder, Priya Vasa, Brian Hutton, Beverley J. Shea, Eva Graham, Julian Little, David Moher, Adrienne Stevens

Published in: Systematic Reviews | Issue 1/2021

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Abstract

Background

Major depressive disorder is common, debilitating, and affects feelings, thoughts, mood, and behaviors. Childhood and adolescence are critical periods for the development of depression and adolescence is marked by an increased incidence of mental health disorders. This protocol outlines the planned scope and methods for a systematic review update that will evaluate the benefits and harms of screening for depression in children and adolescents.

Methods

This review will update a previously published systematic review by Roseman and colleagues. Eligible studies are randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing formal screening in primary care to identify children or adolescents not already self-reporting symptoms of, diagnosed with, or treated for depression. If no or only a single RCT is available, we will consider controlled studies without random assignment. Studies of participants with characteristics associated with an elevated risk of depression will be analyzed separately. Outcomes of interest are symptoms of depression, classification of major depressive disorder based on a validated diagnostic interview, suicidality, health-related quality of life, social function, impact on lifestyle behavior (e.g., substance use, school performance, lost time at work, or school), false-positive results, overdiagnosis, overtreatment, labeling, and other harms such as those arising from treatment. We will search MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, and grey literature sources. Two reviewers will independently screen the titles and abstracts using the liberal accelerated method. Full-text screening will be performed independently by two reviewers using pre-specified eligibility criteria. Data extraction and risk of bias assessments will be performed independently by two reviewers. Pre-planned analyses, including subgroup and sensitivity analyses, are detailed within this protocol. Two independent reviewers will assess and finalize through consensus the certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach, and prepare GRADE evidence profiles and summary of findings tables for each outcome of interest.

Discussion

The systematic review will provide a current state of the evidence of benefits and harms of depression screening in children and adolescents. These findings will be used by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care to inform the development of recommendations on depression screening.

Systematic review registration

Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Screening for depression in children and adolescents: a protocol for a systematic review update
Authors
Andrew Beck
John C. LeBlanc
Kate Morissette
Candyce Hamel
Becky Skidmore
Heather Colquhoun
Eddy Lang
Ainsley Moore
John J. Riva
Brett D. Thombs
Scott Patten
Heather Bragg
Ian Colman
Gary S. Goldfield
Stuart Gordon Nicholls
Kathleen Pajer
Beth K. Potter
Robert Meeder
Priya Vasa
Brian Hutton
Beverley J. Shea
Eva Graham
Julian Little
David Moher
Adrienne Stevens
Publication date
01-12-2021
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Systematic Reviews / Issue 1/2021
Electronic ISSN: 2046-4053
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-01568-3

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