SCIENCE and commerce can make uneasy bedfellows. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the pharmaceutical industry, where research published this week shows an attitude to science and public health that is, to say the least, cavalier. At issue is the performance of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Wonder drugs of the 1990s, they earn billions for their makers, though doubts over their value are growing.
Last June, the UK government’s Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) advised doctors not to prescribe one of these drugs, paroxetine, for children and teenagers because youngsters taking the drug had an increased risk of self-harm and…
