reflecting on what you learned from your peer about determining accuracy and reputability of a site. In addition, do you have any questions about the sites they chose?

MedlinePlus and FDA

Drug: Escitalopram (Lexapro)

What are the pros and cons of each site you chose?

I chose MedlinePlus and the US Food and Drug Administration: Drugs (FDA) options. The first site I searched was MedlinePlus. One pro for MedlinePlus is that it offers easy to read descriptions of this medication. It also has warnings that are prioritized at the top of the page, making it impossible to miss. They break the information down into appropriate categories, such as why you take the medication or side effects. This site is easy to search and navigate since there are no additional links that you have to get to in order to keep learning about the medication. The last update was on 07/15/23, so the information is fairly current (US National Library of Medicine, n.d.-b). While the site does offer descriptive explanations for the medication, a con is that it is written for the average consumer, so it does not go into additional information, such as how your brain has a reuptake ability and why you want that blocked, or why you may have side effects. No additional links also means there is no additional information to expand your learning through their site.

The US FDA site that has a page titled as Escitalopram (marketed as Lexapro) Information, has eight different links that will take you to learn about things like what SSRIs do, antidepressant use for different age categories, and health advisories (US Food and Drug Administration, 2014). Unfortunately, that is the only pro I can list for this site. The cons are many. This page has only three sentences of information about this drug, the rest are links. Four of the links take you to archived data that does not get updated once it is archived. For example, the link that takes you to the page for Information for Healthcare Professionals: Escitalopram (marketed as Lexapro), that was archived in July 2006, meaning that healthcare professionals are getting information from the FDA that is more than 18 years old (US Food and Drug Administration, 2014). The site itself has not been updated since 12/16/14(US Food and Drug Administration, 2014).

Where does each site get its information?

MedlinePlus comes from the National Institute of Health's (NIH) National Library of Medicine (NLM). The NIH is an agency that falls under the United States Department of Health and Human Services (US National Library of Medicine, n.d.). The site's page for escitalopram does not offer information regarding the authors of the page or any citations as to the sources of the information.

There is no information on the Escitalopram page from the US FDA or on the links that indicates its sources. They also fall under the US Department of Health and Human Services (US Food and Drug Administration, 2014).

What makes the site academic and reputable?

Without the ability to verify the validity of the information, it is my assumption that both the NLM and the FDA only accepts peer reviewed and evidence-based research into the database. I am making this assumption based on the fact that they are governmental agency branches and should be able to be deemed reputable.

What did you notice was different about each site when you entered the same medication (e.g., diazepam) into each?

If you type Lexapro into the search engine for MedlinePlus it will take you to a results list that gives you 79 options, the first being Escitalopram and Lexapro being in bold, which is the one I chose. When you type Lexapro in the search engine for the FDA it gives you 65 options and the first one is the one I chose. It also puts Escitalopram and Lexapro in bold. The only real differences occur when you reach the pages chosen.