Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Pharmacology/Style guide

Changes to section headings

There's a proposal at WT:PHARM#Physical and chemical properties section name to change the "Physical and chemical properties" section header to "Chemistry" in MOS:MED#Drugs, treatments, and devices and MOS:PHARM. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 11:03, 21 August 2016 (UTC)

brand names

In the face of brandname spam and in light of the language about listing brands in this guidelines, which people interpret as preventing removal of brandnamespam, I have started to do this in articles. (that was of course after a spammer did this which called my attention to brands listed in that article). This is stupid to me but I see no other way to manage brands. Jytdog (talk) 23:21, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Seems like an appropriate strategy for now. It might be helpful to link the "Many brand names worldwide" to the appropriate section, whether that is "Society and culture" or a subsection of it. Sizeofint (talk) 00:08, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

Yes I started moving them to the "society and culture" section to decrease the ongoing efforts. IMO we do not need the manufacturer associated with each but no strong feelings one way or the other.

I tend to put one or two of the first / more common ones in the infobox and maybe one in the first sentence.

The rest go low in the body.Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 01:28, 24 August 2016 (UTC)

So I just did this Metoclopramide#Brand_names today. If we are going after SEO, would it still work if we commented it out? Jytdog (talk) 05:17, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

With respect to SEO I do not know. I think this is a fairly closely kept secret by Google and they adjust stuff from time to time. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 05:32, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

? don't know what you mean by google secret. By SEO I just mean if our goal is that somebody can find a drug article by searching for a brand name, can we meet that goal by having the laundrylist in the article, commented out? I can't think of any other reason why we would want the laundrylist of brandnames... Jytdog (talk) 05:37, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

Ah, k. When commented out it does not seem to find it when put in our search box.

Redirects improve functioning further. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 05:42, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

I did my best to organize that content in these edits Special:diff/736097698/736104666; I can't really think of any way of improving upon that. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 05:50, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

Nice! I meant doing something like this but what you did is fine. Jytdog (talk) 05:55, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

Yes tested what you did and it does not seem to find them aswell. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 06:00, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

hm. OK so "hide" is the way to go then for now. Jytdog (talk) 06:03, 25 August 2016 (UTC)

MOS:MED

@WhatamIdoing: I realize that this page isn't actually indexed as part of the general MOS guideline (e.g., it's not listed in Category:Wikipedia Manual of Style (science), template:Style, or template:style wide); however, considering that the vast majority of this page is just a concise repetition of relevant statements in MOS:MED that pertain to drug articles (+a few minor details in some places), isn't this technically just a subpage of MOS:MED that covers specific guidelines that are relevant to drugs, analogous to how MOS:CHEM/Structure is a subpage of MOS:CHEM that covers specific guidelines that are relevant to structure diagrams?

For context, MOS:CHEM/Structure is not indexed as part of the general MOS: guideline, but it's indexed as a subpage of MOS:CHEM, which is part of the MOS (i.e., see the navbox template to the right). Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 22:36, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Clarification of what I'm asking: since this page is a subpage of MOS:MED, wouldn't this page inherit MOS:MED's status as a guideline? Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 22:41, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

This isn't a sub-page of MOS:MED. Even if it were, subpages do not inherit guideline status. Guideline status is obtained by having a WP:PROPOSAL. (Also, WP:Guidelines don't sit in a WikiProject's userspace.) WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:39, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

Fair enough. MOS:CHEM probably needs to be fixed then since, in several sections, it basically just includes a very brief summary of another page (not all of which are subpages) with a {{Main article}} hatnote to link to it instead of elaborating on that page. Seppi333 (Insert 2¢) 02:14, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

There's nothing wrong with a guideline including a summary of another page.

Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Chemistry was presumably reviewed as part of the major MoS review (around 2010–2011), and therefore I assume that there's nothing to be fixed there. MOS:CHEM is officially a guideline; MOS:PHARM isn't. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:42, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

Placement of section on use in euthanasia / capital punishment?

There are a few drugs like thiopental and pancuronium that are used in the lethal injection and euthanasia and I am wondering where is the appropriate place to mention these uses? I think most people would agree they're not medical uses per se, nor are they recreational uses per se. Guessing a separate subsection of "Society and culture"? Fuse809 (contribs · email · talk · uploads) 15:26, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

For drugs with prominent non-medical uses we often have a 'Use' section within which 'Medical use' is a subsection. 'Capital punishment' or 'Execution' could be a subsection there. Sizeofint (talk) 19:02, 25 August 2017 (UTC)

Regarding the "Drug Class" info section in ChemBox

Hello there,

Is there a prescribed/preferred formatting style for the "Drug Class" section found in ChembBox? I've noticed that some articles on prescription drugs spell out the class name fully (e.g. Duloxetine) where as others use just the abbreviation (e.g. Bupropion). I did a brief search in this style manual but didn't see anything prescriptive.

If no such style rule exists, might I suggest standardizing on spelling out the drug class name, capitalizing the first letter of each word, and then including the abbreviation in paranthesis afterwards? The class name should also link to the appropriate article for said class, even if it doesn't yet exist. For example, in the Duloxitine article mentioned above, the Drug Class section would say:

Drug class | Serotonin–Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor (SNRI)

Similarly, for the Bupropion article, it'd be:

Drug class | Norepinephrine–Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitor (NDRI)

This seems to match how the drug class articles themselves are formatted, and it makes the most sense to me. ThatdeafITGuy (talk) 22:32, 5 July 2025 (UTC)