Martin Keller

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Martin Keller is an American psychiatrist. He is Mary E. Zucker Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.

He is best known as the lead author of a controversial paper on the use of Paroxetine for treating mental illness in teenagers (Keller et al 2001). The study on which this work was based, commonly known as "Study 329" found that paroxetine (marketing by its licence-holder Glaxo Smithkline as Seroxat) was no more effective than a placebo in alleviating symptoms such as self-harm and suicidal thoughts for patients in this age group. Subsequent studies using the same data concluded that the incidence of such symptoms was greater for those using Seroxat than for those given placebo.

[edit] References

• Brown Medical School's page on Martin Keller (accessed 29 January 2007)
• Keller, M.B., Ryan, N.D., Strober, M., Klein, R.G., Kutcher, S.P., Birmaher, B., Hagino, O.R., Koplewicz, H., Carlson, G., Geller, B., Kusumakar, V., Papatheodorou, G., Sack, W.H., Sweeney, M., Wagner, K.D., Weller, E.b., Winters, N.C., Oakes, R., & McCafferty, J.P. (2001). Efficacy of paroxetine in the treatment of adolescent major depression: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 40(7), 762-772
• BBC News article on the study (accessed 29 January 2007)