Pica (disorder) was a Natural sciences good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones Date Process Result December 5, 2011 Good article nominee Not listed

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Ideal sources for Wikipedia's health content are defined in the guideline Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) and are typically review articles. Here are links to possibly useful sources of information about Pica (disorder). PubMed provides review articles from the past five years (limit to free review articles) The TRIP database provides clinical publications about evidence-based medicine. Other potential sources include: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and CDC

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Hiccupedia, Elusty.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT ( talk) 06:38, 17 January 2022 (UTC) reply

Pica is more commonly seen in women and children, and in areas of low socioeconomic status. ^[1]

References:

I think it should be changed to what I wrote instead of "Pica is more commonly seen in women and children, where it affects people of all ages in these subgroups." I feel that it makes more sense.

Danistrauss ( talk) 19:18, 7 December 2014 (UTC) reply

Pica is the consumption of substances with no significant nutritional value such as soil, soap or ice.[1]

Currently there are no spaces in between the words: soil, earth, soap, or ice. So I added spaces and I took out the word "earth."

Danistrauss ( talk) 19:26, 7 December 2014 (UTC) reply

See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine#Hyalophagia. SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 21:00, 12 February 2015 (UTC) reply

Since I am working on this page for my Psych class, I am unsure where to start to add to this article since it has a lot of information already. I have noticed that DSM-IV is used but there is an updated DSM now. Would I be able to update that information? Any suggestions that this page needs, I would greatly appreciate :) Steparaptor ( talk) 18:57, 3 March 2015 (UTC) reply

Hi, Steparaptor! Could you please remind your professor and fellow students that new posts go on the bottom of the talk page? (I've moved your post to the bottom where it belongs.) I've yet to encounter a student from your class who seems to realize that, and some students from your class are making talk page posts in articlespace. It also seems like today may be some sort of class deadline, as faulty edits have been made today to numerous articles, and ScottPKingPhD, Ian (Wiki Ed) and Ryan (Wiki Ed) may be able to help clean up.

You, on the other hand, should be commended for asking the very question that every student in your class should have asked before clunking in text that has been unhelpful across the board. Your question should earn you high marks for the class.

Here are some specific things this article needs:

1. One of the most valuable thing that students, who have access to journal databases, can do it to add citations to reliable medical sources to any text in the article that is lacking a reliable source. There are many instances of uncited text in this article. Regardless of how profs structure their courses, if you do this, you will have added what the article really needs (which is quite often not at all what profs are asking students to do).
2. This article is particularly weak in the "Signs and symptoms" section: anything you can add from reliable medical sources in that section may be helpful, but take care not to repeat information that is contained in the individual articles about different kinds of pica.
3. Yes, updating the "Diagnosis" section to cover DSM5 would be most helpful, but when writing about the DSM, please take great care not to duplicate the criteria too closely, and to carefully paraphrase, because the APA has come after Wikipedia in the past for copyright issues.

Please let me know if you need any additional help! Regards, SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 19:35, 3 March 2015 (UTC) reply

Hey guys! I was thinking about adding the following small piece to this article: According to Bonnie Taub-Dix with the U.S. News and World Report, a research study in 2011 showed that “hospitalizations for this sparsely known disorder rose 93 percent between 1999 and 2009, and this dramatic increase may be an underestimation because of its likelihood to go unreported.” ^[1] I just wanted to see what everyone thought about it! I personally believe that this would be a good addition because it really puts into perspective how much this disorder has increased over the past few years. Not only this, but also it shows that this is a disorder that most people have never even heard about. Some people may have Pica and not even realize that it could lead be foreshadowing of something like anemia or other problems. Therefore, I believe that this would be beneficial to include.

References:

Nshaykh ( talk) 00:26, 13 April 2015 (UTC) Nshaykh ( talk) 00:23, 13 April 2015 (UTC) reply

If you can locate similar information that is not from a blog source (see [{WP:RS]] and WP:MEDRS) it would make a good addition about US hospitalizations, in the "Society and culture" section (and not in the lead). SandyGeorgia ( Talk) 18:02, 14 April 2015 (UTC) reply

The lede paragraph included the sentence

Pica has been linked to mental and emotional disorders and they often have psychotic comorbidity.

The writing is awkward. I think what was meant is that pica often has psychotic comorbidity, not that the mental and emotional disorders do. I have rewritten it as

Pica has been linked to mental and emotional disorders and often has psychotic comorbidity.

But this should be checked by someone with the relevant medical knowledge. -- Thnidu ( talk) 00:23, 21 January 2016 (UTC) reply

it might best follow [1] [2] with a slight word adjustment...IMO-- Ozzie10aaaa ( talk) 02:12, 21 January 2016 (UTC) reply

Article is still using DSM IV criteria. Medicalmiller ( talk) 23:05, 20 December 2016 (UTC) reply

Hello Wikipedia community! We are a group of medical students from Queen’s University who are working on a class assignment that requires us to edit a medical wikipedia article. Our proposed edits are below. Please let us know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding what we are suggesting.

1) Proposed changes to the Wikipedia article: The primary reference for the treatment section could be updated with a more reliable source that is not a narrative review but a meta-analysis. The citation: ^[1]

• Please list the reference you are proposing to remove JenOttawa ( talk) 00:31, 8 November 2017 (UTC)4 reply

RESPONSE: I propose to replace Blinder, Barton, J.; Salama, C. (May 2008). "An update on Pica: prevalence, contributing causes, and treatment". Psychiatric Times. 25 (6) with my proposed reference.

The primary reference for the treatment section (Blinder, Barton, J.; Salama, C. (May 2008). "An update on Pica: prevalence, contributing causes, and treatment". Psychiatric Times. 25 (6)) could be updated with a more reliable source that is not a narrative review but a meta-analysis. The citation: ^[2] would be a much better reference Elusty ( talk) 17:22, 9 November 2017 (UTC)Elusty reply

Your proposed reference is published in 2004. Is there anything more recent? JenOttawa ( talk) 03:30, 15 November 2017 (UTC) reply

RESPONSE:No, Pica Disorder is not studied heavily and systematic reviews and meta-analyses are few and far between. The other strong references were already taken by my group members. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elusty ( talk • contribs) 14:56, 15 November 2017 (UTC) reply

2) Proposed Addition to the “history” section of the pica article, to supplement the current information. “The condition currently known as Pica was first described by Hippocrates. ^[3] Prior to the elimination of the category of “feeding disorders in infancy and early childhood”, which is where pica was classified, from the DSM 5, pica was primarily diagnosed in children. ^[3] However, since the removal of the category, psychiatrists have started to diagnose pica in people of all ages. ^[3]

3) Proposed change to the Wikipedia article: Update the definition of Pica to reference the DSM 5 and improve the paraphrasing with the following definition. "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, posts four criteria that must be met for a person to be diagnosed with Pica: 1. They must have been eating non-nutritive non-foods for at least one month. ^[4] 2. This eating must be considered abnormal for the person's stage of development. ^[4] 3. Eating these substances cannot be associated with a cultural practice that is considered normal in the social context of the individual. ^[4] 4. For people who currently have a medical condition (e.g.: pregnancy) or a mental disorder (e.g.: autism spectrum disorder) the action of eating non-nutritive non-foods should only be considered pica if it is dangerous and requires extra medical investigation or treatment on top of what they are already receiving for their pre-existing condition. ^[4]"

4) Update the information on the prevalence of pica in pregnant women in Pica (disorder)#Epidemiology by removing all references to primary sources (currently references 23, 24, 25 and 26) as well as the unsourced concluding sentence on malnutrition. Replace this content with the following, sourced from a meta-analysis: “Based on compiled self-report and interview data of pregnant and postpartum women, Pica is most prevalent geographically in Africa, with an estimated prevalence of 44.8%, followed by North and South America (23.0%) and Eurasia (17.5%). ^[5] Factors associated with Pica in this population were determined to be anemia and low levels of education, both of which are associated with low socioeconomic backgrounds. ^[5]”

5) Elaborate on Pica’s association with mineral deficiencies based on the results of a 2015 meta-analysis in the Pica (disorder)#Causes section after the sentence currently in the article that ends with "mineral in which that individual is deficient." (no content needs to be removed from this section)

Proposed addition: "People practicing forms of pica, such as geophagy, pagophagy and amylophagy, are more likely anemic, have low hemoglobin concentration in their blood, lower levels of red blood cells ( hematocrit), or have lower plasma zinc levels. ^[6] Specifically, practicing geophagy is more likely to associated with anemia or low hemoglobin. ^[6] Practicing pagophagy and amylophagy were more highly associated with anemia. ^[6] Additionally, being a child or pregnant woman practicing pica was associated with higher chance of being anemic or having low hemoglobin relative to the general population. ^[6]"

Looks good to me. JenOttawa ( talk) 03:30, 15 November 2017 (UTC) reply

6) Proposed change to the Wikipedia article: The Wikipedia article currently states that mineral deficiency may be a potential cause of pica; however, according to the DSM 5 (the most current DSM), it is stated that mineral deficiencies are sometimes associated with pica but most of the time there is no biological abnormality found. I will remove the following from the Wikipedia article: "The scant research that has been done on the causes of pica suggests that the disorder is a  specific appetite caused by  mineral deficiency in many cases, such as  iron deficiency, which sometimes is a result of  celiac disease or  hookworm infection. Often the substance eaten by someone with pica contains the mineral in which that individual is deficient." I will replace that quote with: "According to the DSM 5, mineral deficiencies are occasionally associated with pica; however, biological abnormalities are rarely found in individuals with pica" ^[4].

7) There are currently no statistics on the effectiveness of various behavioral therapies for treating pica. Suggestion addition: "Behavioral treatments for pica have been shown to reduce pica severity by 80% in people with intellectual disabilities." ^[7]

Hiccupedia ( talk) 22:44, 7 November 2017 (UTC) reply

COMMENTS:The Hagopian ref does not have a link. Be consistent - is it DSM 5, DSM V or DSM-V? Finally, now that you are in Talk, do not delete content in Talk once others have added responses. Instead, continue the discussion below, using an additional ":" to farther indent your new comment. David notMD ( talk) 01:41, 8 November 2017 (UTC) reply

RESPONSE: Thank you so much for your comments! We have changed them all to say "DSM 5" and are working on fixing the link. Please let us know if you have any additional suggestions. We will not delete comments moving forward, we did not realize that that was a problem! Raewoodhouse ( talk) 16:49, 9 November 2017 (UTC) reply

FYI: Student groups worked on this article in 2011 and in 2015. David notMD ( talk) 02:17, 10 November 2017 (UTC) reply

@ Elusty:@ JenOttawa: In the article, i.e., not here in Talk, Ref #25 (McAdam) does not appear to pertain to the new text it is appended to. Was this the wrong ref to add? The text immediately before ref #25 is "A recent study classified nine such classes of behavioral intervention: Success with treatment is generally high and generally fades with age, but it varies depending on the cause of the disorder. Developmental causes tend to have a lower success rate. Pregnancy craving causes tend to have higher success rates."

In the article, i.e., not here in Talk, McAdam is also already ref #3 and ref #4. Here is what I think caused part of the problem: at first use of ref #4, Elusty kept the ref name "Blinder" but replaced the ref content with McAdams. All places where the ref was "Blinder" are now McAdams. If that was not intended, then "Blinder" needs to be restored. I put that name in quotes because there is no Blinder ref for pica but there is a Binder for pica. David notMD ( talk) 02:53, 17 November 2017 (UTC) reply

McAdam (2004) is ref #3, #4 and #23. One or more of these was maybe supposed to stay Binder, but that ref deleted by the student group. Binder is old [Binder S, Sokal D, Maughan D. Estimating soil ingestion: the use of tracer elements in estimating the amount of soil ingested by young children. Arch Environ Health. 1986 Nov-Dec;41(6):341-5. PubMed PMID: 3619490].

The text before #23 appears to have nothing to do with McAdam, so that a problem, too. David notMD ( talk) 15:31, 28 November 2017 (UTC) reply

I removed the duplicate references. Now it is needed to see where the "Blinder" reference is used and repair this. http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/eating-disorders/update-pica-prevalence-contributing-causes-and-treatment/page/0/4 I am running out of time at the moment. Will re-visit. Thanks for noticing this. "Binder" is definitely a primary source, and IMO should be removed. "Blinder" is a 2008 review article. I missed your initial message on Nov 17th. JenOttawa ( talk) 16:01, 28 November 2017 (UTC) reply

@ David notMD: added back in the "Blinder" ref from pre Nov 14th and fixed McAdam. I got to run out of door and will be away from the internet for the next 10 hours. If you think that I made a mistake, always possible :), please let me know and I will fix it asap, or go ahead and revert my attempt at fixing this issue. Thanks again! JenOttawa ( talk) 16:26, 28 November 2017 (UTC) reply

I think you restored the right ref. I was perplexed because Blinder 2008 does not show up at PubMed, and then, there was the Binder 1986 article! Not sure that McAdams is correct where it is - now ref #22 - but that is because I can read only the abstract. Full text of the article may be appropriate for where it is used as a citation. David notMD ( talk) 16:46, 28 November 2017 (UTC) reply

Pica is described in section "Signs and Symptoms" as consumption of substances with no nutritional value, then lists hematophagia or the consumption of blood as a type of pica. Blood largely consists of protein and is a good source of iron and an animal source of several vitamins. This does not fit in with the other listed types of pica. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.210.241.124 ( talk) 21:38, 21 October 2018 (UTC) reply

I was wondering the same about coprophagia since it's one of the few herbivory sources of vitamin B12 and is common among animals for that reason. DAVilla ( talk) 20:25, 12 November 2020 (UTC) reply

The practices under treatment techniques sound dehumanising and reminiscent of Applied Behaviour Analysis. Are we sure that we cannot delete or replace that part? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.208.68.175 ( talk) 17:48, 8 October 2019 (UTC) reply

The article currently says that [t]he term pica originates in the Latin word for magpie, picave. However, when I check several Latin dictionaries, including Lewis & Short's generally comprehensive dictionary [3], I find no entry for picave but do find pīca listed as a word for magpie. The paper cited for this is paywalled, but in the abstract it, too, makes no mention of picave but states: Pica is the medieval Latin name for the bird called the magpie, who, it is claimed, has a penchant for eating almost anything. Therefore I am changing the word listed as the source of the name to pīca. - 73.195.249.93 ( talk) 16:37, 13 July 2021 (UTC) reply

Upon googling Pica for a project, the search results first bring up a derogatory term/slur for those with a mental illness, before the definition. It is no longer in the article however, is there a way that this can be taken down? It does not show on every platform I have used but I am uncomfortable with that being the first results. Can someone report this or do something? Slayslay13 ( talk) 20:34, 28 September 2023 (UTC) reply

Google search results don't have much to do with us, you would have to contact Google. MrOllie ( talk) 20:41, 28 September 2023 (UTC) reply