According to the APA Style Guide section on Capitalization, "APA Style is a 'down' style, meaning that words are lowercase unless there is specific guidance to capitalize them."
Here are some basic rules for capitalizing within APA papers:
Diseases, Disorders, Therapies, and More
- In general, do not capitalize the names of diseases, treatments, theories, concepts, etc.
- Do capitalize personal names that appear within these kinds of terms.
- Examples: lung cancer, art therapy, Alzheimer's disease, Adlerian therapy
Proper Nouns, Trade Names, and Generic Drug Names
- Capitalize proper nouns, names of racial & ethnic groups, and trade & brand names.
- Do not capitalize generic drug names.
- Example: Prozac (trade name) vs fluoxetine (generic name)
When in doubt, ask a librarian or consult the APA Dictionary of Psychology.
