Better Never than Late…If Brown University Psychiatrist Martin B. Keller Had His Way

     In 2001 the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry published the results of a study of Paxil, the adult antidepressant, which concluded that Paxil was safe and effective for kids ages 12 to 18. 

     In 2012 GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of Paxil, paid $3 billion to settle civil and criminal charges that included “unlawful promotion” of Paxil for adolescents. The complaint included the allegation that GSK “participated in preparing, publishing and distributing” that misleading medical journal article first prepared by Brown University psychiatrist Martin B. Keller which said Paxil was safe for adolescents.

     A second scientific analysis of Paxil in 2015 found that the drug was indeed “ineffective and unsafe” for adolescents.

     Only this September, 2025, has the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry issued an “expression of concern” about their original Paxil article. “Further review is underway, and an expression of concern will continue to be associated with the article until an outcome is reached.”

     Only a quarter of a century later? Wow.

     Jon Jureidini, a researcher at the University of Adelaide in South Australia and the coauthor of the 2015 analysis, noted that by that time the article had been cited 451 times, and that number included the researchers who referred to the article in a positive way. Jureidini’s analysis also found that 11 of 275 children and teenagers (4 percent) taking Paxil developed suicidal or self-harming behaviors, while only one in the placebo group did.

     Could it be that the new lawsuit against the owner of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the publisher of the article, Elsevier, for continuing to “publish, distribute, and sell a fraudulent scientific article” that endangers adolescents prompted this sudden ethical wakeup?

     The journal has been charging readers $41.50 and the publisher $33.39 to buy access to the paper. Over the quarter of a century the article has been available, that’s a sizable income.

     Of course, it’s far less than the $11.6 billion GSK made during the period covered in their lawsuit over Paxil…even though $11.6 billion is more than enough to cover their $3 billion settlement for the teens whose lives they endangered, thanks to the publication of psychiatrist Keller’s original article.