Methodology

Where the information comes from.

We're a medication safety site, and you should be able to trace any clinical claim we make back to a regulator, a guideline, or a peer-reviewed paper. This page lays out exactly what we use and how.

Source hierarchy

We rank sources by how directly they speak to safety and how they were produced:

Tier 1 — Medicines regulators

  • TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia) — scheduling, product information, safety advisories.
  • FDA (United States) — approval data, drug labels, boxed warnings, MedWatch advisories.
  • MHRA (United Kingdom) — Drug Safety Updates, licensing data.
  • EMA (European Medicines Agency) — central authorisations, safety reviews.

These are our default reference for what a medication is, how it's classified, and what the regulator says about its safe use.

Tier 2 — National clinical guidelines

  • NICE (UK) — guidelines on prescribing, pain, mental health, chronic conditions.
  • RACGP (Royal Australian College of General Practitioners) — primary care guidance.
  • Therapeutic Guidelines Australia — Australian prescribing standards.
  • BPAC NZ — practical prescribing guidance.
  • CDC (US) — clinical guidelines, including the CDC Opioid Prescribing Guideline.
  • Faculty of Pain Medicine (UK/AU) — opioid stewardship, chronic pain.
  • PBS Schedule (Australia) — subsidy and prescribing context.

Used when we explain "what should happen" — recommendations, monitoring, duration limits, contraindications.

Tier 3 — Authoritative drug databases

  • Australian Medicines Handbook (AMH)
  • MIMS (Australia)
  • British National Formulary (BNF)
  • Micromedex

Used for detailed pharmacology, dose ranges, and interaction tables when a regulator/guideline is insufficient.

Tier 4 — Peer-reviewed primary literature

For specific clinical claims (e.g. a particular interaction mechanism, a recent safety signal) where higher tiers are silent. We prefer systematic reviews and meta-analyses; we cite the individual paper.

What we don't use as a source

  • AI model output. AI helps draft language; it doesn't decide what's true. A claim must trace to a human-authored source above.
  • Wikipedia. Useful for orientation, never as a citation.
  • Pharmaceutical manufacturer marketing. We use a regulator's product information document, not the manufacturer's promotional material.
  • Lay forums and social media. Real patient experiences are valuable but are not clinical evidence.

How we use AI

AI assists with drafting, summarising, and structuring content. Specifically:

  • Drafting prose from sourced clinical points, in plain language.
  • Suggesting structure (headings, FAQs, what to cover).
  • Tightening language for readability without changing clinical meaning.
  • Powering interactive tools (e.g. our drug interaction checker) with responses constrained to vetted source material.

AI does not:

  • Decide whether a clinical claim is correct.
  • Set dosing, recommend medication, or classify severity without human review.
  • Sign off on a published page. Every reviewed page is approved by a named pharmacist.

For more detail, see AI safety and limitations.

Geographic scope

We cover medications across multiple jurisdictions — primarily Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Where a medication has different scheduling, names, or guidance in different countries, we say so. We never substitute one country's regulator for another.

If you're reading about a medication from outside the country where you live or are prescribed, check the section for your jurisdiction — and please confirm details with your pharmacist or prescriber locally.

Update cadence

  • Regulator safety advisories — incorporated within 2 working days of publication for medicines we cover.
  • Reviewed pages — re-reviewed at least every 12 months.
  • Reviewed pages with new safety signals — re-reviewed promptly when a regulator publishes new advice.
  • Unreviewed structured pages — refreshed from regulator data periodically; carry no "Reviewed by" badge until a pharmacist signs off.

Limitations

Regulatory information and clinical guidelines change. We do our best to keep up, but a page you read today might already be slightly out of date by the time a regulator publishes new guidance tomorrow. If you're making a decision that matters — starting a new medication, stopping one, combining two — please confirm with your prescriber or pharmacist directly.