Researchers have found that Wikipedia often omits important drug information, putting users at risk of potentially harmful drug interactions and adverse effects, Reuters Health reports.
Wikipedia is a no-cost online encyclopedia that lets users add and edit content.
Study Details, Findings
Researchers from Nova Southeastern University in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., compared Wikipedia with Medscape Drug Reference, a peer-reviewed, no-cost site, by searching for answers to 80 different questions, covering eight categories of drug information. The categories included adverse drug effects, dosages and mechanism of action.
While MDR provided answers to 82.5% of the questions, Wikipedia could answer only 40%. In addition, Wikipedia's answers were less likely to be complete.
Of the answers researchers found on Wikipedia, none were factually inaccurate, while there were four inaccurate answers in MDR.
However, researchers found 48 errors of omission in the Wikipedia entries, compared with 14 for MDR.
Researcher Kevin Clauson said, "I think that these errors of omission can be just as dangerous" as inaccuracies. He added that drug company representatives have been found removing information from Wikipedia entries that raised safety questions about their drugs.
After 90 days, the researchers found that the Wikipedia entries demonstrated a "marked improvement" in scope.
Clauson said that Wikipedia can be a good starting point for Internet research but that it should not be viewed as the authority on any topic and should not be used as a resource by medical professionals (Harding, Reuters Health, 11/24).