Ananova:

Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends belong in a child development clinic, according to doctors in Canada.

A group of developmental paediatricians says that Pooh is obsessive-compulsive, Eeyore is chronically depressed, Piglet needs medication, Roo is a juvenile delinquent in the making, and Christopher Robin has gender issues.

They also fear Christopher Robin may be to blame for Pooh being a Bear of Very Little Brain; years of being dragged down the stairs on the back of his head may have led to 'shaken bear syndrome'.

"Sadly, the forest is not, in fact, a place of enchantment, but rather one of disenchantment, where neurodevelopmental and psychosocial problems go unrecognized and untreated," the paediatricians say in the Christmas issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

They suggest that with specific medication the characters could lead a better life.

But the future looks bleak for Roo: "We predict we will someday see a delinquent, jaded, adolescent Roo hanging out late at night at the top of the forest, the ground littered with broken bottles of extract of malt and the butts of smoked thistles."

On the subject of Christopher Robin they said: "The more psychoanalytical members of our group indicated that there could be some Freudian meaning to his peculiar naming of his bear as Winnie-the-Pooh."

The claims come after the team, led by Dr Sarah Shea, studied the classic tales of AA Milne.