Les nouveautés de l’édition 2024

(en anglais)

DeCS 2024 edition received new descriptor records:

311 from MeSH and 83 in exclusive DeCS categories.

The subcategories receiving more than ten new descriptors are listed below:

D - Chemicals and Drugs.................................................129
HP - Homeopathy..........................................................61
SP - Public Health.......................................................34
B - Organisms............................................................28
N - Health Care..........................................................28
G - Phenomena and Processes..............................................24
C - Diseases.............................................................20
E - Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques, and Equipments....19
F - Psychiatry and Psychology............................................17
I - Anthropology, Education, Sociology, and Social Phenomena.............14
L - Information Science..................................................11

MeSH special projects

1. Psychological Stress

New descriptors and updated concepts were added to the area of Psychological Stress, for example:

2. Scientific binomials in Latin replaced some common names in category [B] Organisms, as well as new descriptors of living beings were added in that format. Examples:

3. Also in category [B] Organisms a new term was created, Poisonous Snakes. More specific descriptors of the snake families Elapidae and Viperidae were located under it.

4. Six entry terms from [I01] Social Science subcategory were upgraded to descriptor status:

Special projects to DeCS exclusive categories

1. Anti-Ableism

In partnership with NAI/UNIVASF, under the coordination of Prof. Dr. Karla Daniele Maciel de Sá Luz, some descriptors in Portuguese that had scope notes or that nominally had terms with an ableist bias were revised. In addition, terms were added in exclusive DeCS categories as descriptors and/or as entry terms in MeSH categories. As a result of this collaboration:

7 new descriptors were added or were corrected
35 new entry terms were added
57 terms were deleted

Some outdated terms were kept in order to assist users who are interested in retrieving comprehensive search results for studies such as in longitudinal studies. Consider reading here more details of this project (in Portuguese).

2. Homeopathy category revision

The revision of the Homeopathy category has a deadline to be completed in the 2025 edition. So far, what stands out the most is the reorganization of the concepts of homeopathic medicines by origin, which were previously organized alphabetically. Additionally, some descriptors that had been considered entry terms were elevated to descriptor status, as they had been known as homeopathic medicines. Click here for more details.

General information

For current entry combinations, click here.

Find here a webinar that summarizes the changes for the 2024 MeSH.

See also: Annual MeSH Processing for 2024 MeSH. NLM Tech Bull. 2023 Nov-Dec;(455):e3.

Adaptation: Health Terminology and Classifications – BIREME/PAHO/WHO

Update: March, 2024