A group of researchers wants the American Journal of Psychiatry to retract a study published in 2004 after newly unsealed documents suggest that Forest Laboratories, the company that sold the medicine that was the subject of the study, misled regulators about key details.
As reported previously, the documents indicate the drug maker obscured key data demonstrating its Celexa antidepressant was not effective in children. Instead, the company portrayed the results as positive in materials submitted to regulators in hopes of winning approval for pediatric use.
For this reason, the researchers argue in a Feb. 20 letter to the Dr. Robert Freedman, the editor of the journal, that “serious misrepresentation” warrants a retraction. Specifically, the study concluded that the antidepressant was effective in children between the ages of 7 and 17.
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