By the time your child is a preteen or teen, pediatrician appointments can seem both simpler than they were when your kid was a squalling, squirming newborn and yet so much more complicated.
For example, the early teens years are when some kids start grappling with mental health issues, but recognizing the signs can be a challenge. Only about 50 percent of adolescents with depression get diagnosed before reaching adulthood and as many as two out of three depressed teens don’t get the care that could help them.
That’s why new clinical practice guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released this week state that all kids, starting at age 12, should be screened for depression by their doctor during a well visit, a sports physical, or any other office visit. The new recommendations also call for families with a depressed teen to develop a safety plan to restrict the young person’s access to “lethal means of harm,” such as guns, medications or knives.
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   Anxiety disorders in children
It has been more than 10 years since the AAP initially called for early identification of depression risk factors and using a formal screening tool for those with risk factors. Yet many primary-care pe...