Invoking the common names argument The gist of the epinephrine vs adrenaline discussion above is that both terms are equally scientific and neither is proprietary There are differences in regional use eg Spain favors epinephrine while the British favor adrenaline and there are interesting differences in usage between the lay and scientific communities within a given region eg lay Americans favor adrenaline while American scientists favor epinephrine Worldwide however adrenaline is by far the most commonly used term Using the principles of WP COMMONNAMES adrenaline is favored hands down But because there is controversy surrounding the terms WP MEDMOS gets invoked And because MEDMOS defers to an international authority when there is disagreement the article remains entitled epinephrine since that is the preferred INN term With respect to naming conventions of drugs the function of MEDMOS is to ensure that generic names are used instead of proprietary ones scientific terms are used instead of lay terms and that an international body eg INN should be consulted when there are regional differences between terms These rules are perfectly appropriate but inadequate They nicely handled the situation of generic sildenafil vs proprietary Viagra They were also used to support the scientific myocardial infarction over the lay heart attack And they dealt swiftly with the paracetamol vs acetaminophen controversy because the INN prefers the former over the latter The epinephrine vs adrenaline debate is quite different from each of these examples Both terms are generic They are equally scientific But there are considerable differences in regional usage between the terms Yet I m against reflexively deferring to the INN in this situation because it goes against one of Wikipedia s most basic naming conventions WP COMMONNAMES I am proposing that we employ common sense when applying the MEDMOS guideline In doing so we can clear up this disagreement without throwing up our arms and deferring elsewhere We can simply use the common name adrenaline and be done As precedent consider last year s discussion regarding Tourette syndrome over at MEDMOS talk page The debate was between Tourette s syndrome and Tourette s disorder two well recognized and equally scientific terms However Tourette s syndrome was vastly more commonly used and Tourette s disorder was viewed as a pejorative by the TS community However rather than blindly deferring to the recommended international term the editors used common sense and reached a consensus upon the common name It was agreed that the term favored by the international body ICD 10 Combined vocal and multiple motor tic disorder de la Tourette was inappropriate and the more common term Tourette s syndrome was ultimately used instead I encourage us to employ the same common sense and apply WP COMMONNAMES here as well