Editing Digitalis (section)

==In popular culture==
According to 1981 speculation, [[Vincent van Gogh]]'s "Yellow Period" may have been influenced by digitalis, because it had been proposed as a therapy to control epilepsy around this time, and there are two paintings by the artist where the plant is present.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=T. C. |date=20 February 1981 |title=Van Gogh's vision. ''Digitalis'' intoxication? |journal=JAMA |volume=245 |issue=7 |pages=727–729 |doi=10.1001/jama.1981.03310320049025 |pmid=7007674}}</ref> Other studies immediately questioned this: there are a large number of other possible explanations for van Gogh's choice of palette,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lanthony |first1=P. |date=October 1989 |title=[Van Gogh's xanthopsia] |journal=Bulletin des Sociétés d'Ophtalmologie Française |volume=89 |issue=10 |pages=1133–1134 |language=fr |pmid=2695267}}</ref><ref name=Arnold1991>{{cite journal |last1=Arnold |first1=Wilfred Niels |last2=Loftus |first2=Loretta S. |date=1 September 1991 |title=Xanthopsia and van Gogh's yellow palette |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/eye199193.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030071440/https://www.nature.com/articles/eye199193.pdf |archive-date=2018-10-30 |url-status=live |journal=Eye |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=503–510 |doi=10.1038/eye.1991.93 |pmid=1794418 |s2cid=26723081 |access-date=28 November 2020|doi-access=free }}</ref> there is no evidence that van Gogh was ever given the drug or that his physician prescribed it, he was tested and had no [[xanthopsia]], and in his many letters of the time he makes it clear that he simply liked using the colour yellow,<ref name=Arnold1991/><ref name=Gruener2013>{{cite journal |last1=Gruener |first1=Anna |date=July 2013 |title=Vincent van Gogh's yellow vision |url=https://bjgp.org/content/63/612/370.long |journal=British Journal of General Practice |volume=63 |issue=612 |pages=370–371 |pmid=23834871 |pmc=3693787 |doi=10.3399/bjgp13X669266 |access-date=28 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Voskuil |first1=Piet |date=October 2020 |title=Vincent van Gogh and his illness. A reflection on a posthumous diagnostic exercise |journal=  Epilepsy & Behavior|volume=111 |issue=107258 |page=107258 |pmid=32629415 |doi=10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107258|s2cid=220323719 }}</ref> but it has remained a popular theory.<ref>{{cite news |last=Harkup |first=Kathryn |authorlink=Kathryn Harkup|date=10 August 2017 |title=It was all yellow: did digitalis affect the way Van Gogh saw the world? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/aug/10/it-was-all-yellow-did-digitalis-affect-the-way-van-gogh-saw-the-world |work=The Guardian (UK) |access-date=28 November 2020}}</ref>