Glossary
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Need a definition? Please
P
PGVCB
Persian Gulf Veterans Coordinating Board, a body established by the Secretaries of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Health and Human Services to facilitate efforts by the agencies to investigate, research, and provide health services to veterans who served in the Persian Gulf War. It was succeeded by the Military and Veterans Health Coordinating Board.
Parallel (or independent groups) design
A trial that compares two groups of patients, one of which receives the treatment of interest and one of which is a control group (e.g., a randomized controlled trial). (Some parallel trials have more than one treatment group; others compare two treatment groups, each acting as a control for the other.)
Particulate matter
Fine liquid (droplets) or solid particles discharged directly or formed in the atmosphere with exhaust gases.
Peer review
The process by which manuscripts submitted to health, biomedical, and other scientifically oriented journals and other publications are evaluated by experts in appropriate fields (usually anonymous to the authors) to determine if the manuscripts are of adequate quality for publication.
Pertussis, whooping cough
An acute, highly contagious infection of the respiratory tract, most frequently affecting young children, usually caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. It is marked by fever, sneezing, runny nose, and a dry cough. After a week or two, characteristic coughing attacks are followed by a long-drawn, shrill, "whooping" inspiration, due to spasmodic closure of the glottis. This stage lasts three to four weeks, after which coughing attacks grow less frequent and less violent and finally cease.
Pesticides
Chemicals used to kill pests. The term is most often used to refer to chemicals directed against arthropods.
Pharmacokinetics
The study of the way the body absorbs, distributes and gets rid of a drug.
Placebo
An inactive substance or treatment given to satisfy a patient's expectation for treatment. In some controlled trials (particularly investigations of drug treatments) placebos that are made to be indistinguishable by patients (and providers when possible) from the true intervention are given to the control group to be used as a comparative basis for determining the effect of the investigational treatment.
Platelets
Small particles in the blood that help with clotting.
Polio
A viral infection that attacks the motor neurons in the brainstem and spinal cord and may produce paralysis. Highly effective vaccines are available for protection against infection by the three different strains of this virus.
Posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD
A psychological disorder that develops in some individuals who have had psychologically traumatic experiences. Events which may be traumatic are marked by a perceived threat of death or injury, fear, helplessness (loss of control), or horror. Notable symptoms of PTSD include intrusions (flashbacks or nightmares which cause the patient to re-experience the traumatic event), avoidance of people or things which provoke intrusions, and hyperarousal (increased vigilance or startle response). There may also be depression, excessive irritability, and guilt (for having survived while others died).
Potentiate
Increase or multiply the effect of a drug or toxin by administration.
Pregnancy
Encompasses the time from confirmation of implantation (through any of the presumptive signs of pregnancy, such as missed manses, or by a medically acceptable pregnancy test), until expulsion or extraction of the fetus.
Prevalence
The number of people in a population with a specific disease or condition at a given time, usually expressed as a ratio of the number of affected people to the total population.
Principal Investigator
The scientist or scholar with primary responsibility for the design and conduct of a research project.
Privacy
control over the extent, timing and circumstances of sharing oneself (physically, behaviorally, or intellectually) with others.
Prophylaxis
A drug given to prevent disease or infection.
Prospective study
A study in which the investigators plan and manage the intervention of interest in selected groups of patients. As such, investigators do not know what the outcomes will be when they undertake the study. (Contrast with retrospective study.)
Protocol
The formal design or plan of an experiment or research activity; specifically, the plan submitted to an IRB for review and to an agency for research support.
Pulmonary
Pertaining to the lungs.
Pyridostigmine Bromide (PB)
A drug that has been licensed for use in the treatment of myasthenia gravis, a chronic neurological disease marked by muscle weakness. In low doses, PB has been found to block the binding of long acting nerve agents, increasing the chance for nerve agent antidotes to save lives in the event of exposure to these agents. This low dose use of PB for the purpose of protecting against nerve agents has not been licensed by the FDA for use in humans, so it remains an investigational new drug.
