Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®) in MEDLINE®/PubMed®: A Tutorial
Pharmacological Action Terms
Most chemical and drug MeSH headings and Supplementary Concept Records (SCRs) are assigned one or more headings that describe the pharmacological action(s) (PA) of the substance.
- Since 1996, NLM indexers add the appropriate pharmacological action MeSH heading as well as the specific chemical MeSH heading to a citation when the action of the chemical is being discussed in the article.
Example:
Here are the pharmacological actions established for the MeSH Heading, Aspirin:
- Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal
- Fibrinolytic Agents
- Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors
- Cyclooxygenase Inhibitors
- Antipyretics
An article indexed since 1996 that discusses aspirin used as an anti-inflammatory agent is indexed with:
Aspirin
Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal
An article indexed since 1996 that discusses aspirin used to inhibit blood clotting is indexed with:
Aspirin
Platelet Aggregation Inhibitors
- To search for articles indexed since 1996 about a particular action of a substance, search the substance term AND the Pharmacological Action as a MeSH heading.
Example:
aspirin [mh] AND fibrinolytic agents [mh]
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