Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Pharmacology

Protein/drug navboxes

(Also posted on project MBC)

User:Medgirl131 has recently created {{Cytokine receptor modulators}} and {{Nitric oxide signaling}} navboxes and has been adding these to a large number of articles. My major concern is that they combine endogenous proteins and recombinant protein drugs in one infobox which I think is confusing. Additional concerns that I have about these navboxes are their large size and that they violate WP:Bidirectional which makes navigation more difficult. I have highlighted my concerns on their talk page here. What do others think about these navboxes? Boghog (talk) 06:06, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

Sorry, I've given up complaining about bloated pharma navboxes. See e.g. {{Serotonergics}} (and many others). --ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 15:50, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

Migalastat for DYK

See Template:Did you know nominations/Migalastat. Just so you know. --ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 15:54, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

Glycerol

...could use some attention to sourcing, if someone could spare the time. It appears to have had a lot of CAM-driven input, so that too will need some attention. LeadSongDog come howl! 21:53, 17 June 2016 (UTC)

Merge Macrogol into Polyethylene glycol?

Comments at Talk:Polyethylene glycol#Merge Macrogol? would be welcome. --ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 12:48, 22 June 2016 (UTC)

Looking for feedback on a tool on Visual Editor to add open license text from other sources

Hi all

I'm designing a tool for Visual Editor to make it easy for people to add open license text from other sources, there are a huge number of open license sources compatible with Wikipedia including around 9000 journals. I can see a very large opportunity to easily create a high volume of good quality articles quickly. I have done a small project with open license text from UNESCO as a proof of concept, any thoughts, feedback or endorsements (on the Meta page) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

--John Cummings (talk) 14:39, 28 June 2016 (UTC)

Proton-pump inhibitors equally effective?

Regarding this edit by User:Hyperforin, I'd like to ask here whether [1] (or [2]) count as reliable sources. Alternatively, does anyone know about a high quality source comparing the effectiveness of PPIs? Thanks, ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 09:55, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

The first one appears borderline. On the surface, it looks OK, but it is not listed in PubMed. The second citation is a summary of PMID 21089251 which is clearly a MEDRS compliant source. Boghog (talk) 11:47, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Have added a second ref. There are few if any meaningful differences when comparable doses are used. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 16:46, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Some of the issue derives from dose comparisons. For example the review states "There is controversy about the appropriateness of dose comparisons in head-to-head trials comparing esomeprazole with omeprazole. The US Food and Drug Administration’s clinical review of esomeprazole indicates that esomeprazole 40 mg is “pharmacodynamically thrice that of the s-isomer” in omeprazole 20 mg (see US Food and Drug Administration Medical Review, executive summary, page 4).9 While the doses approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment of erosive esophagitis are 20 to 40 mg daily for esomeprazole, and 20 mg daily for omeprazole (both for 4 to 8 weeks), because of differences in drug chemistry and pharmacology, there is no clear equivalent dose of omeprazole and esomeprazole." [3] Therefore the conclusion is "Among 16 head-to-head trials, those with comparable doses did not find differences in symptom relief or healing of esophagitis." "Three head-to-head trials in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease but without erosive esophagitis on endoscopy found no difference between esomeprazole 20 mg and omeprazole 20 mg, pantoprazole 20 mg, or rabeprazole 10 mg. These studies used different outcome measures." Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 16:54, 16 July 2016 (UTC)

Featured article nomination for beta-Hydroxy beta-methylbutyric acid

Cross-posted at WT:MED#Featured article nomination for beta-Hydroxy beta-methylbutyric acid

Would anyone be willing to take on this review?

I'm planning on immediately nominating it for featured article status after it passes GA since I've spent dozens of hours searching for medical reviews and monographs on this compound. I'm fairly certain that every known aspect of its clinical effects and pharmacological properties has been covered in the article, so it should pass the comprehensiveness criterion. Hopefully it won't take a full year of FA nominations like amphetamine did. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 13:58, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

You might try WT:CHEM as well. Sizeofint (talk) 02:05, 4 August 2016 (UTC)

I decided to skip the GA process altogether since it's taking too long. I'd really appreciate it if others from this project would review this article at FAC: Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Beta-Hydroxy beta-methylbutyric acid/archive1. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 16:19, 12 August 2016 (UTC)

Still need 1–2 more reviewers to take on a review of the medical/pharmacological aspects of this compound; doing an image review won't take much time either if anyone here cares to take on a review of that aspect of the WP:FA criteria (there are no fair use images; all the images are either chemical structure drawings in the public domain or CC-BY-# graphs/diagrams from open access pubmed-indexed journal articles with both captions and WP:ALT text – this is easily verifiable). I expect that a few non-medical editors who regularly review FACs will take on a review of the prose and do WP:V checks, so it's not really necessary for anyone here to do a review of that.

If you're interested in doing a review of this article at FAC and are new to FAC reviews, you should read the instructions on the WP:FAC page under listed under the heading "Supporting and opposing" and read User:Nikkimaria/Reviewing featured article candidates for a primer on how to review an article at FAC. It might help to look at how reviews in other FA nominations are structured as well, but that isn't really necessary. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 08:41, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Announcing WikiConference North America in San Diego, Fri-Mon 7-10 October

I am inviting participants in WikiProject Pharmacology to WikiConference North America to be held in San Diego Friday to Monday 7-10 October. Here are further details:

• The conference includes a track called "Health care and science", so submissions with that theme are particularly welcome
• We are accepting submissions until 31 August.
• We are accepting scholarship applications 9 August - 23 August. About 40 scholarships are available only for people in Canada, the US, and Mexico. Last year about 200 people applied for scholarships.
• More volunteers are needed. In the usual wiki-way, anyone may comment on program submissions. At the conference in person, all staff will be volunteer and all attendees are encouraged check in with conference organizers about volunteering for the task queue even for an hour. Anyone interested may contact Flonight and Rosiestep to offer volunteer support.
• Major sponsorship for the conference comes from the San Diego Public Library who are providing the venue and a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation.
• This is the third year of this conference, with WikiConference USA being in New York in 2014 and in Washington DC in 2015. Check the schedules of those for examples of what kinds of programming will be offered this year.

Discussion about the conference on-wiki could happen at meta:WikiConference North America.

I am one of the organizers for this event. If anyone has questions or comments, then conversation can happen here at this WikiProject also. I am advocating for medicine to be well represented at this event. If any participants at this WikiProject wants to talk by video about the conference, I am available to meet by video chat if you email me. I might, for example, support anyone in making a presentation submission if you are unfamiliar with the wiki conference format. Thanks. Blue Rasberry (talk) 16:19, 10 August 2016 (UTC)

Psychoactive Substances Act, infoboxes and OR

A while back, I created the article on the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 (PSA for short), a law in the UK that attempts to ban "legal highs", which is interpreted by the government to include synthetic/"designer" drugs that are analogues of existing banned narcotic drugs. I now periodically get notified about new articles that link to the PSA page, which are often articles about exactly the sort of compounds that the law is intended to ban/restrict. The editors of these pages say they are controlled under the PSA, but unlike traditional drug control legislation like the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, there isn't any determination that something is a banned "psychoactive substance". Editors adding this to infoboxes or articles are presumably then adding original research, which is strongly discouraged by Wikipedia's rules.

One of the problems with the PSA that its critics allege is that there's not really any way for someone to know whether a substance is banned under it (because of the lack of scientific precision in the wording of the law). Alas, that criticism also applies to anyone (Wikipedia included) attempting to say whether a substance is controlled under it. If the police and the prosecuting authorities don't even know whether a drug is banned, it seems difficult for Wikipedia to do likewise. Such substances live in a sort of land of legal uncertainty: unless a prosecution is brought against someone for supplying the substance, we don't really know whether it is or isn't a psychoactive substance. If a Wikipedia article on a drug mentions that it is controlled under the PSA, should we remove that as original research if it does not have a source? If a noted expert in psychopharmacology (e.g. members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs) say that it is likely covered by the PSA, that's probably enough. If a politician responsible for drugs policy (say, the Home Secretary) says it is banned under the PSA, that's probably enough for Wikipedia to say it is. But without that, we're really just guessing. I thought I'd leave this here as a discussion point as the rules around pharmacology infoboxes isn't really my bailiwick. —Tom Morris (talk) 15:41, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

Pinging Meodipt and Aethyta as they seem the most active in this area. —Tom Morris (talk) 15:45, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

We had a related discussion on this topic a while ago Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Pharmacology/Archive_10#Drug_laws. I think the consensus was to leave it out of the infobox and explain it in the text. Sizeofint (talk) 16:03, 15 August 2016 (UTC)

Physical and chemical properties section name

Currently this MOS includes the following recommended section:

1. Physical and chemical properties

   Include information on the chemical structure, stereochemistry, and chemical composition of the drug (e.g., free base, hydrochloride salt, etc.). Basic physicochemical properties such as melting pointing, solubility and other raw data should be placed in the drugbox.

   1. Synthesis (only necessary for articles tagged by {{WikiProject Chemicals}})
   2. Detection in body fluids

I find the Physical and chemical properties heading somewhat inappropriate. Synthesis is not a fundamental property of a drug as there are many ways of synthesizing it. Detection is also not a property. Hence I thinkPhysical and chemical properties should be renamed Chemistry. Chemistry includes both synthetic and analytical (detection) chemistry. Thoughts? Boghog (talk) 07:24, 21 August 2016 (UTC)

• I support the argument that Chemistry is a better name; more accurate (including synethesis and detection) and more concise. Klbrain (talk) 07:47, 21 August 2016 (UTC)
• Support changing to "Chemistry" - more apt for subheadings + generally more relevant to content that's commonly included there in drug articles. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 10:40, 21 August 2016 (UTC)
• Support per above arguments. --ἀνυπόδητος (talk) 19:08, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

Due to the unanimous support for this change thus far, I went ahead and updated MOS:PHARM and MOS:MED accordingly: Special:diff/722095913/735788998 and Special:diff/735092668/735789004. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 03:27, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

• The only issue with that for MEDMOS is that the sectioning is used in articles about medical devices ; for those "physical properties" is a more useful title, so for implementing this in MEDMOS that should remain stated as an option. But otherwise "chemistry" is more straightforward. Jytdog (talk) 02:18, 24 August 2016 (UTC)