Ed Silverman writes in StatNews:
“More than a decade ago, a published study touted the benefits of using the Celexa antidepressant to treat children and teens. A recent analysis, however, alleged the study had numerous problems — notably, there was no difference between the drug and a placebo. And so, the researchers and several other academics want the medical society and the journal that published the study to issue a retraction.”
“The researchers wrote that procedural deviations in the study were not reported; negative outcomes were not reported; side effects were misleadingly analyzed; and drafts of the study were prepared by company employees and outside ghostwriters.”
The current research (“The citalopram CIT-MD-18 pediatric depression trial: Deconstruction of medical ghostwriting, data mischaracterisation and academic malfeasance“, International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine 28 (2016) 33–43) concludes:
“Deconstruction of court documents revealed that protocol-specified outcome measures showed no statistically significant difference between citalopram [Celexa] and placebo. However, the published article concluded that citalopram was safe and significantly more efficacious than placebo for children and adolescents, with possible adverse effects on patient safety.”
See more information in these previous posts:
https://www.cchrstl.org/wordpress/2012/07/07/settlements-and-lawsuits-galore/
https://www.cchrstl.org/wordpress/2010/09/22/forest-pharmaceuticals-pleads-guilty/