Campaigners against a controversial pill have welcomed the publication of research by Britain's largest drug firm into links between the product and suicide in children.

More than 3,000 British families have begun legal actions against Crawley-based GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) amid claims the firm covered up studies into potential risks of Seroxat.

The company, which has come under increasing pressure from the medical community, has now published details of nine scientific studies and two clinical reviews into the potential side-effects of children taking Seroxat.

The antidepressant has been blamed for the suicide of a number of children, including a teenage artist from Newhaven.

Adult campaigners across Sussex also blame the drug for altering personality and causing mood swings and panic attacks.

Jacqueline Moon, 40, from Eastbourne, who believes Seroxat caused her to suffer electric shock-like spasms, constant nausea, anxiety and morbid thoughts, said: "I'm astonished they have made a U-turn but it is just a shame they couldn't do these tests prior to putting this stuff on the market."

Between 1993 and 2003, GSK financed a series of studies to find out if Seroxat was safe and whether it worked on children.

The tests involved more than 1,600 youngsters suffering from major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or extreme social anxiety.

Serious side-effects, including suicidal thoughts, extreme hostility and worsening depression, were between two and six times more common among the groups taking Seroxat.

The results of the studies were only made available to the medical community.

But GSK published the research on the internet after it was attacked by medical journal The Lancet as being secretive.

Ms Moon, who is among the families who have started legal actions, was prescribed Seroxat five years ago for anxiety following a diagnosis of Mnire's disease, which affects balance and hearing.

She decided to flush her last Seroxat tablets down the toilet last January but still suffers from spasms. She said: "This is good news for the sufferers because this might open the door to GSK taking more responsibility."

The drug was blamed for the suicide of 18-year-old Sharise Gatchell, from Newhaven, who hanged herself in May last year.

It was also linked to the death of Brighton nurse Emma Gibson, 35, who was found engulfed in flames near her burning car in Woodmancote, near Chichester, last March.

West Sussex Coroner Roger Stone said he would alert the Health and Safety Executive to concerns Seroxat contributed to her death. He recorded an open verdict but her family believes a recent increase in her daily Seroxat dose tipped the balance of her mind towards suicide.

GSK also faces a lawsuit from New York's top prosecutor, who filed fraud charges claiming the company hid evidence that showed Seroxat, which is worth £2 billion a year to GSK, made children and teenagers suicidal.

Doctors in Britain are banned from treating children with Seroxat, one of a class of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

An expert working group of the Government's Committee on Safety of Medicines is close to completing its review of the safety and efficacy of SSRIs in adults and is thought to have found a similar picture.

An estimated 17 million people worldwide have taken the drug since it was first licensed in 1990, attracted by promises of defeating depression while suffering fewer side-effects than any other treatment.

Two to six per cent of children suffer from depression and suicide is the third leading cause of death in ten to 19-year-olds. An estimated 40,000 children were on SSRIs last year.

A spokesman for GSK said: "We thought in the interest of transparency and given the interest in this area that we would publish all the documents on the web site.

"We have made no attempt to hide results or mislead the regulators or the medical community. Studies individually show no consistent evidence of a problem in terms of the safety issue. It really was not until the nine studies had been completed and we combined it with a further review in 2003 that we saw there was a potential signal."