Interventions to Prevent Perinatal Depression: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement.
The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends referring people at increased risk to counselling before depression starts — do I meet their risk criteria, and can you make that referral now rather than waiting to see how I do?
Top of the evidence hierarchy, independently funded. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: "Inadequate evidence" for exercise, education, and the drug options means not enough good trials existed in 2019, not that those approaches were shown to fail. The recommendation is also US-specific and now several years old.
The USPSTF issued a B recommendation that clinicians provide or refer pregnant and postpartum people at increased risk of perinatal depression to counselling interventions, finding convincing evidence that CBT and interpersonal therapy prevent it and no more than small potential harms. Increased risk includes a history of depression, current depressive symptoms, or socioeconomic factors such as low income or young or single parenthood. Evidence for non-counselling approaches — physical activity, education, infant sleep training, nortriptyline, sertraline, omega-3s — was judged inadequate.
Worth asking
The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends referring people at increased risk to counselling before depression starts — do I meet their risk criteria, and can you make that referral now rather than waiting to see how I do?
Source
Interventions to Prevent Perinatal Depression: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement. — US Preventive Services Task Force; Curry SJ, Krist AH, Owens DK, et al. (2019)
Top-tier peer-reviewed journal
Read the source: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2019.0007
DOI: 10.1001/jama.2019.0007
How this was scored
- Study design
- National clinical guideline
- Funding
- Independently funded
- Published in
- Top-tier peer-reviewed journal
- Sample size
- not recorded
- Preregistered
- No
- Conflicts disclosed
- Yes
- Independent of proponent
- Yes
- Retracted
- No
Read the full scoring rubric, including what it can't tell you.
Published August 19, 2026.
Where we put this study in context
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
Resolv rates this source "gold standard". Top of the evidence hierarchy, independently funded. It scores 89 out of 100 on our published rubric. One caveat travels with that badge: "Inadequate evidence" for exercise, education, and the drug options means not enough good trials existed in 2019, not that those approaches were shown to fail. The recommendation is also US-specific and now several years old. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
Interventions to Prevent Perinatal Depression: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement. — US Preventive Services Task Force; Curry SJ, Krist AH, Owens DK, et al. (2019). Published in: Top-tier peer-reviewed journal. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2019.0007. The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Who paid for this research, and does that matter?
Study design: National clinical guideline. Funding: Independently funded. The researchers were independent of whoever benefits from the result. Industry sponsorship is one of the most reliably measured biases in medicine, which is why funding carries real weight in the score rather than sitting in a footnote.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.