Drug companies may have deliberately suppressed evidence that many antidepressants are unsuitable or even dangerous for children, it was claimed today.

Researchers uncovered data which raised serious doubts about prescribing the pills to children but it was never made public.

Published studies indicated the benefits outweighed risks for all five drugs studied.

But the wider review showed this was true of only one, the leading brand Prozac.

The others were at best not proven to help children and at worst associated with an increased risk of suicide or suicidal thoughts.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, the six psychiatrists and child health experts who carried out the research suggested negative study data could have been deliberately withheld.

The drugs involved in the study are known as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which make up the most popular antidepressants on the market.

Besides Prozac, a brand name for the drug fluoxetine, the experts looked at paroxetine, sertraline, citalopram, and venlafaxine.

In the case of paroxetine, citalopram and venlafaxine there was clear evidence of a small risk of suicide-related events. A weak suicidal association with sertraline was also seen.

For none of these drugs was there evidence of sufficient benefit to outweigh the risks.

The UK Committee on Safety of Medicines last year banned the treatment of childhood depression with any SSRI except Prozac.

The Lancet said an internal memorandum from drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, maker of paroxetine, had demonstrated how it "sought to manipulate the results of published research".

In a hard-hitting editorial, the journal said: "The story of research into SSRI use in childhood depression is one of confusion, manipulation, and institutional failure.

"In a global medical culture where evidence-based practice is seen as the gold standard for care, these failings are a disaster."

The researchers obtained information about unpublished trials from the Government's Committee for the Safety of Medicines, which has access to confidential data.

But every request for unpublished data from the pharmaceutical companies met with refusal.

Friday April 23, 2004