Drugs and Wikipedia don't mix

Sindya Bhanoo — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:14:10 -0500

Using Wikipedia to read up on your medications may be more dangerous than you might expect.

It's not because Wikipedia is inaccurate -- it's because it's incomplete. Researchers at Nova Southeastern University found that while Wikipedia entries for 80 drugs had few factual errors, many of the entries were missing key information.

For instance, they found that the entry for the anti-inflammatory drug Arthrotec failed to state that it can cause pregnant women to miscarry, Reuters reported. And the entry for St. John's wort did not state that the drug can interfere with the HIV drugPrezista.

"I think that these errors of omission can be just as dangerous," as inaccuracies, Kevin Clauson, a pharmacy professor at Nova and the lead researcher in the study, told Reuters.

In the study, researchers compared Wikipedia to Medscape Drug Reference, a site with information by professional writers, physicians and health care professionals. They found that Medscape included more comprehensive information on drugs.

"Wikipedia can be hit-or-miss," Ranit Mishori, a family medicine doctor at Georgetown University School of Medicine told The Industry Standard. "One of my main concerns with Wikipedia is that many entries are written by people who don’t necessarily pay attention to health literacy.

Mishori often refers patients to sites that are monitored by professionals such as www.familydoctor.org, www.mayoclinic.com and www.drugs.com.

But no internet source can replace the authority of a physician, doctors said.

"I encourage patients to look up information on the internet because in the 15-20 minutes allotted to me for a visit, I often don’t have the time to explain everything," Mishori said. "But they should always discuss their findings with their health care provider before making any changes."

(Image: Composite by The Standard, photo by tyfihi)