Searching PubMed for all the Evidence: A Review for IPPE

by Cindy Schmidt

Revised July 2019

 

Warning:  Do NOT work on this tutorial in Internet Explorer.  Instead switch to another internet browser,  and go to

http://library1.unmc.edu/gots/tutorial/pubmedippe

 

Instructions:

• If this instruction screen or the "Contents" menu flickers or jerks, try right-clicking on the light grey bar in the screen header and selecting the "refresh" or "reload" option from the menu that appears. One or more refreshes will usually fix the problem.

• Please follow the instructions on each screen and then click the arrow to move to the next screen. Avoid getting ahead of the tutorial. Nearly every step in the search process is explained

• If you want to skip between distant parts of the tutorial, you can use the "Menu" button (the icon composed of three, stacked, horizontal lines that is indicated by the red arrow in screenshot below) to show the tutorial's "Table of Contents" and can click on the needed section of the tutorial. You may have to click away from the contents to see the instructions again.

• Clicking the "single-page view" link (purple arrow in the screenshot above) will produce a transcript of the entire tutorial.

Purpose

This tutorial will explain, and lead you through, the steps involved in searching all parts of PubMed for information on a specific clinical topic.

PubMed Datasets

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PubMed contains over 30 million records. Each record provides information about a article.

Unfortunately, there is no single searching method that best fits all the records in PubMed.

Why?

PubMed contains 3 different sets of records.

Every PubMed record in each of the three record sets contains:

• authors' last names and first initials,
• article title,
• journal title,
• volume
• page numbers,
• year of publication,
• publication language.

Only MEDLINE records are indexed and contain the indexer dependent:

• medical subject headings (MeSH)
• publication type tags/headings (randomized controlled trials vs. editorial vs. case report)
• subject characteristic tags/headings (human vs. animal, child vs. adult, female vs. male)

PubMed Datasets

2 of 3The three record types and their characteristics are listed below. 

Indexed records:

• MEDLINE records -- MEDLINE records form the bulk of PubMed records. -- A human indexer has assigned medical subject headings (MeSH) and added information about the subject characteristics (human/animal, age, gender) and publication types (randomized controlled trial, review, etc.). Click here to see a screenshot of a MEDLINE record.

Unindexed Records (Click here to see a screenshot of an un-indexed  record):

• PREMEDLINE records -- "as received from publisher" and "in process" records. These records will eventually be indexed and become MEDLINE records. 
• non-MEDLINE records. When full-text is freely available through PubMed Central (a full-text depository), a record will be added to PubMed even if the journal publishing the article is not currently indexed in PubMed. Also some publishers are beginning to submit records for their very old content ( a record for a freely available, 1885 article from Science, for example). Records for such old articles are of potential interest to PubMed searchers, but not timely enough to deserve the attention of indexers. 

Indexed records/MEDLINE records are usually retrieved most easily and effectively with medical subject heading (MeSH) searches.

Unindexed records, in general, do not contain medical subject headings (MeSH) and, thus, cannot be retrieved using medical subject heading (MeSH) searches. The searcher must use keyword searches to retrieve these records.

PubMed Datasets

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This tutorial will guide you through a MeSH search for MEDLINE records (indexed records) and then a keyword search for both indexed and unindexed records. Both searches will be focused on a single clinical question.

Question

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Clinical Situation:
You have a patient who just watched a documentary about the use of capsaicin to treat peripheral neuropathy. Although she just watched the documentary, she knows it was produced several years ago. She wants to know whether results of clinical trials continue to support this treatment and whether she should give it a try.

Open a Word document and type a list of the important concepts in this question. (Some students find this easier if they are asked, instead, to list the words they might type into a quick Google search.)

Question

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Does your list include the following two concepts?

capsaicin
peripheral neuropathy

If not, add these concepts to your list.

Limit Concepts

Have you also listed any of the following in your list of search concepts?

• humans (humans vs. animals)
• females (gender)
• adult (age)
• randomized controlled trials, practice guidelines, consensus statements (publication type)
• English-language (publication language)

If so, type the word "LIMIT" next to these concepts.

When you are working on a MeSH search of MEDLINE, things like publication characteristics (language, publication type) and subject characteristics (human vs. animal, gender, age) are best applied as limits.  Don't include these concepts in your initial search.  You will apply limits corresponding to these concepts after running your initial, MEDLINE search.

These concepts are often best left out of a keyword search.

MeSH Templates

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It's easiest to construct a MeSH search if you know how PubMed's indexers expect you to search.

Does your search fit into one of the six search types shown below? If so, copy the search template and paste it into your Word document.

1. Drug safety/consumer product safety
“Drug A/adverse effects”[mesh] OR “Drug A/poisoning”[mesh] OR “Drug A/toxicity”[mesh] OR (“Drug A”[mesh] AND “drug effects”[sh]) OR (“Drug A”[mesh] AND (“Safety”[mesh] OR “consumer product safety”[mesh]))

2. Drug A (Procedure A) that doesn’t cause harm (organ that could be harmed is not specified)
“Drug A”[mesh] AND “drug effects”[sh]

3. Drug A (Procedure A) that doesn’t cause (or is least likely to cause) harm to Organ B
“Drug A”[mesh] AND “Organ B/drug effects”[mesh]

4. Drug A (Procedure A) causes Disease B
(“Drug A/adverse effects”[mesh] OR “Drug A/poisoning”[mesh] OR “Drug A/toxicity”[mesh]) AND (“Disease B/etiology”[mesh] OR “Disease B/chemically-induced”[mesh])

5. Drug or chemical or supplement A used to treat Disease B
(“Drug-chemical-supplement A/therapeutic use”[mesh] OR "Drug-chemical-supplement A/administration and dosage"[mesh]) AND (“Disease B/drug therapy”[mesh] OR "Disease B/therapy")

6. Disease A results in occurrence of Disease B
“Disease A/complications”[mesh] AND “Disease B/etiology”[mesh]

MeSH Templates

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Did you say that the search fits template #5 -

Drug or chemical or supplement A used to treat Disease B
(“Drug-chemical-supplement A/therapeutic use”[mesh] OR "Drug-chemical-supplement A/administration and dosage"[mesh]) AND (“Disease B/drug therapy”[mesh] OR "Disease B/therapy")

If so, you're correct.

You don't know yet what subject headings or subheadings are available for the capsaicin and peripheral neuropathy concepts, but after looking at the templates, you should be hoping to produce a search similar to the following:

("capsaicin/therapeutic use"[mesh] OR "capsaicin/administration and dosage"[mesh]) AND ("peripheral neuropathy/drug therapy"[mesh] OR "peripheral neuropathy/therapy"[mesh] )

You might wish to copy this planned search into your Word document so that you can refer to it later.

PubMed Link

Now that you've outlined your search, it's time to actually look up the needed medical subject headings (MeSH) and construct your search.

Click here to open a PubMed page with UNMC full-text buttons. You may be asked to login with your UNMC e-mail username and password if you are using an off-campus computer or are using the campus wireless network.

In the future when you need to use PubMed without the help of this tutorial, you can reach this same version of PubMed by going to the Library homepage and clicking on the "Literature Databases" button.  When the "Literature Databases" page appears, click on the "MEDLINE via PubMed" link.

 

People who are not affiliated with UNMC occasionally find this tutorial, you can still use most of this tutorial. Click here to open PubMed  without the UNMC full-text links.

MeSH Database

You should now see the PubMed homepage in your new browser window.

• From the drop-down menu to the left of the PubMed search box, select the "Mesh" thesaurus/database option.

 

Capsaicin

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• Enter --

capsaicin

-- in the search box and click on the search button.

Capsaicin

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A list of about 5 MeSH headings will appear. These five headings appear because the descriptions of all these headings contain the word capsaicin.

In this case, you want to use the first heading in the list -- Capsaicin

• Click on the capsaicin heading so that you can see and select subheadings.

Capsaicin

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Look at your Word document.

What subheading/s do you want to use with the capsaicin heading?

Capsaicin

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Did you say that you want to use the "therapeutic use" subheading and the "administration and dosage" subheading with capsaicin?

If so, you are correct.

• click on the box in front of the "administration and dosage" subheading and the "therapeutic use" subheading (red arrows in figure below).

Capsaicin

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• Then click the "Add to search builder" button (blue arrow).

Capsaicin

6 of 7In the future, you will encounter searches that don't fit neatly into a template category. In those cases it may be best to use the heading without any subheadings.

A search that uses a heading without subheadings will retrieve both articles indexed with the heading alone and articles indexed with the heading and any subheading. Use subheadings only when there are just a few aspects of the heading topic (1-3 aspects) that are central to your clinical question.

Capsaicin

7 of 7The -- "capsaicin/administration and dosage"[MeSH] OR "capsaicin/therapeutic use"[MeSH] -- terms should now appear in the PubMed search builder (blue box in figure below).

You now need to search for a peripheral neuropathy heading.

• Enter --

peripheral neuropathy

-- in the MeSH search box (see red box in figure above) and hit the "search" button (red arrow).

Peripheral Neuropathy

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Of the options that appear, the first option "peripheral nervous system diseases" is the most likely to include all forms of peripheral neuropathy.

• Click on the "peripheral nervous system diseases" heading.

Peripheral Neuropathy

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When the detailed "peripheral nervous system diseases" page appears, refer to your notes again. Which subheadings do you plan to use with this heading?

Peripheral Neuropathy

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Did you say "drug therapy" and "therapy"?

If so, you are correct!

• Click the boxes in front of the "drug therapy" and "therapy" subheadings (red arrows in figure below).

Before you add these "peripheral nervous system diseases/subheading" combinations to the search builder, think twice. 

Peripheral Neuropathy

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Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the list of broader and narrower headings. Would a broader or narrower heading be better?

In the figure below, you can see part of the 'tree' for "Peripheral Nervous System Diseases." You can see the whole list in your MeSH database window.

Peripheral Neuropathy

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Before you consider switching headings, it's important that you understand that PubMed "explodes" headings by default. What does this mean?

When you search with

"peripheral nervous system diseases/drug therapy"[mesh] OR "peripheral nervous system diseases/therapy"[mesh]

PubMed retrieves records indexed with the terms you've listed but it also retrieves all records indexed with the narrower headings in combination with the subheadings you've chosen. For example,

"peripheral nervous system diseases/drug therapy"[mesh] OR "peripheral nervous system diseases/therapy"[mesh]

will retrieve articles indexed with any of the following:

"peripheral nervous system diseases/therapy"[mesh]
"peripheral nervous system diseases/drug therapy"[mesh]
"acrodynia/therapy"[mesh]
"acrodynia/drug therapy"[mesh]
"diabetic neuropathies/therapy"[mesh]
"diabetic neuropathies/drug therapy"[mesh]
"causalgia/therapy"[mesh]
"causalgia/drug therapy"[mesh]
etc.

Should you switch to a broader or narrower heading or stay with your current choice?

Peripheral Neuropathy

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In this case, the --

"Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/drug therapy"[mesh] OR "Peripheral Nervous System Diseases/therapy"[mesh]

-- search that you've already selected is best.

Why?

Because you want to retrieve the articles about treatment of peripheral nervous system diseases in general, as well as the articles about treatment of specific peripheral nervous system diseases that the exploded "peripheral nervous system" heading will retrieve. You don't want to retrieve the articles about non-peripheral-nervous-system-related "neuromuscular diseases" that would be included among the results retrieved by the broader "neuromuscular diseases" heading.

Peripheral Neuropathy

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Scroll back up to the "PubMed Search Builder."

 

Which Boolean operator --

AND
OR
NOT

-- do you want to use to join the "capsaicin/____" and "peripheral nervous system diseases/_____" terms?

Peripheral Neuropathy

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If you said --

AND

, you are correct!

You should use AND to join the capsaicin concept to the peripheral neuropathy concept because you want both concepts to be present in every record you retrieve. If you wanted either the capsaicin or the peripheral neuropathy concept to be present in each record retrieved, you would choose OR to join the concepts.

Peripheral Neuropathy

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• Retain the default AND selection (red arrow)

• Click  the "Add to search builder" button (blue arrow).

Peripheral Neuropathy

10 of 10If you selected both subheadings at the same time, the search builder automatically OR's the two "peripheral nervous system diseases/subheading combinations and encloses them in parentheses.  This is great as you don't care which of these is present.

If you added the "peripheral nervous system diseases/administration and dosage"[mesh] and the "peripheral nervous system diseases/therapeutic use"[mesh] one at a time, you will need to fix the parentheses.   Remove the ) between the two terms  you just added and enclose the two terms in a set of parentheses.  If you don't fix the parentheses, your search will retrieve everything indexed with the last OR'd term in your search whether or not the items retrieved have anything to do with capsaicin.

Search PubMed

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Review the search statement that has been created. Do you need to edit the parentheses or Boolean operators? If so, make the needed changes.

You could remove all the extra parentheses added by the search builder.  At a minimum,  check the following:

1. Is there a set of parentheses enclosing each set of OR'd terms? 

2.  Are there any parentheses nested inside the set of parentheses that encloses a set of OR'd terms?  If so, is the inner set both opened with a - (- and closed with a - ) - inside the outer parentheses.  If not, the inner parenthesis will break the function of the outer set.  Fix the problem before proceeding.

Search PubMed

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• When you're satisfied with your search statement, click the "Search PubMed" button.

Apply Limits

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You should now be looking at PubMed search results. "PubMed" should appear automatically in the drop-down menu to the left of your search statement (red box in screenshot below).

You should be looking at a list of at least 219 results ( arrow in the figure).

Apply Limits

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Now it's time to add any desired limits/filters.   For the purposes of this tutorial, use the "Randomized-Controlled Trials", "Humans", and "English" limits/filters.

• One at a time, apply the desired limits/filters by clicking the relevant links on the left-hand side of the page.  You will have to wait for the page to refresh after clicking each limit.
• You may have to click the the "customize" link to find the  "Article Types" filter you wish to use. Select the article type of interest and click the "Show" button (blue arrows in figure above). Once the filter appears in the list on the left-hand side of the page, you can click it to apply it to your search results.

• If one of the needed limit categories (e.g. the "Languages" category) is not shown, click the "Show additional filters" link at the bottom of the filter list. Select and "Show" the limit category of interest.  Wait for the needed filter  to appear, and select, one-at-a-time, the filter options you wish to apply.

Display Settings

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After the application of the filters, at least 35 records should remain. The "Filters Activated" warning will appear (red box).

• To see the full-text buttons, use the "Format" drop-down menu (blue arrow) to select the "Abstract" view.

 

Display Settings

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• click on the "Sort...." drop-down menu. Select "Publication Date."

Full Text Buttons

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Look at the full-text buttons that appear under the abstracts. Under some records you will see buttons that say, "Free" or  "Open Access."

If you want to see full text and a "Free" or "Open Access" button is available, try it first.

Full Text Buttons

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Most records have publishers' buttons that say nothing about free or open access. These buttons usually just give you a chance to pay for the article. If the Library happens to buy access from the publisher and you happen to be on-campus, the publisher's button may provide access without asking for payment. However, using the "GetIt!@UNMC" button first usually saves time as we frequently buy full text from non-publisher, full text vendors.

Full Text Buttons

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• Find the PubMed record for a 2019 article by Kulkantrakorn entitled "0.075% capsaicin lotion for the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy...."

This record has PubMed ID #(PMID) 30472337

• Click on the "GetIt!@UNMC" button.

Full Text Buttons

4 of 7After you click on the "GetIt!@UNMC" button, a new tab or new window will open. The full-text source should appear on the left-hand side of the page.

Usually you will be taken directly to the webpage for the specific article and you will just have to look for the .pdf or “full-text” link or icon.

Occasionally (as may occur in this case), you will be taken to a homepage for the journal or a journal vendor. When this happens, try one of the following:

1. Find a journal search box and search for the article's title. The title of the article should be present toward the top of the right-hand side bar.

2. Find and click on a "back issues", "previous issues", "journal contents", or "archives" button or link. Use the publication year, volume, issue and page numbers in the right-hand side bar to located the needed article.

Full Text Buttons

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If you see the article's abstract, but can’t find the .pdf/full-text icon or link, it may be hidden behind the right-hand sidebar. Click the arrow at the top of the side-bar (arrow #1 in screenshot above) to expose the portion of the window behind the sidebar.

If you see an error message on the left-hand side of the page instead of the full-text webpage:

(a) Look at the right-hand side bar to see if there’s another source that you can try (arrow #2 in the figure).

(b) If there is no other source licensed by the library, try the “Search Google Scholar By Title” link (arrow #3) . A free version may be available through Google Scholar.

(c) If Google Scholar isn’t helpful call or e-mail the library to request help obtaining the article or use the "Order item through Interlibrary Loan" (arrow #4) to request that we obtain a copy of the article for you.  More details on Interlibrary Loan appear later in this tutorial.

Full Text Buttons

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• Now click back to your PubMed results (the PubMed tab includes a double helix icon).

• Find the PubMed record for a 2016 article by Forster concerning TapCapMentho in Expert Opin Pharmacother (PMID 27295489). 

• Click on this record's "GetIt!@UNMC" button.

Full Text Buttons

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The "Sorry, this item is not available through the library's online subscriptions" statement (arrow #1 in figure) means that the McGoogan Library does not have a license or subscription for the electronic form of this article.

Sometimes, you can obtain a free version of the article through Google Scholar by clicking the “Search Google Scholar By Title” link (arrow #2 in figure). Links to freely available items appear on the right-hand side of the Google Scholar page.

Alternately, you can order it through the Library’s Interlibrary Loan service (arrow #3 in figure). There is no charge for this service.

McGoogan Docs

When you click the "Order item through Interlibrary Loan" button, a login form will appear.

• Log-in with your UNMC Net ID

If you haven't created an Interlibrary Loan account in the past, you will be asked to enter some information.  Add the "Free UNMC" billing method to the Billing Table when asked to do so.  If a pre-populated request form doesn't appear, go back to the "360 link" tab and click the blue button again. 

• Review the order form that the Interlibrary Loan software has filled out for you.

• If you really want the library to obtain the article for you, click "Submit" button at the bottom of the page.  The service is free to you, but the library pays, on average, more than $11 per article.  Please, only ask for items that you really want to see.

90% of requests are filled within 2 weekdays. Very,very few English-language articles are unobtainable.

When the Library receives an article that you've requested, the article is posted in your Interlibrary Loan account. The Library sends you an e-mail to let you know that the article is available. You just have to log into your account within 30-days to download and save or print the article.

Keyword Search

The MeSH-based search you've just performed will only retrieve indexed records (MEDLINE records). These are the only records that contain medical subject headings and the only records that have assigned subject characteristics (age, gender, human/animal) and assigned publication types.

It's now time to search for unindexed records. To perform a comprehensive keyword search, the type of search you will need to perform for your third year group project, you have to try to think of every word or phrase an author might use to indicate that he/she is talking about the concept of interest to you. You've already outlined the important concepts in this search. Take a few seconds to try to think of one or two alternate terms an author might use to indicate that he/she is talking about the concepts of capsaicin or peripheral neuropathy. Did you come up with any alternate terms? It's often hard to think of synonyms. That's why it's important to consult sources that can help. The tutorial will guide you through this process.

Alternate Terms

The MeSH database can actually be quite helpful to the keyword searcher. Why? For each MeSH heading there is a list of entry terms. This list includes some of the other terms authors have used for the heading concept. The MeSH database may also contain narrower terms that should be included in your search.

It's important that you understand that you'll now be using the MeSH database to find new keywords -- you should not add terms with [mesh] tags to this search. (Do not use the "Add to Search builder" button while constructing this search).

Capsaicin

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• Use the drop-down menu above the PubMed search box to select "MeSH" (blue arrow).

• Enter -- capsaicin -- in the search box (red box).

• Hit the "Search" button (green arrow).

Capsaicin

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• After reaching the MeSH search results, click on the "Capsaicin" link.

Capsaicin

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• Copy the entry term list into your Word document (see red box in figure below).

• Add your concept word --

capsaicin

-- to the list .

• Then delete all the multi-word phrases that contain the word capsaicin from the list in your Word document.

Capsaicin

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Do you have the following list of terms?

capsaicin
Capsaicine
8-Methyl-N-Vanillyl-6-Nonenamide
8 Methyl N Vanillyl 6 Nonenamide
Axsain
Zacin
Capsidol
Zostrix
Capzasin
Gelcen
Katrum
NGX-4010
NGX 4010
NGX4010
Capsicum Farmaya
Capsin

If not, correct your list of terms.

Next:

• Put quotes around the multi-word terms (any terms containing spaces).
• OR together the list of terms to make one search statement
• Put parentheses around the OR'd together terms so that the PubMed search engine will retrieve a set of results for the capsaicin concept before doing any adjacent operations.

Capsaicin

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Did you end up with the following search statement/strategy?

(capsaicin OR Capsaicine OR 8-Methyl-N-Vanillyl-6-Nonenamide OR "8 Methyl N Vanillyl 6 Nonenamide" OR Axsain OR Zacin OR "Capsicum Farmaya" OR Capsidol OR Zostrix OR Capzasin OR Gelcen OR Katrum OR NGX-4010 OR "NGX 4010" OR NGX4010 OR Capsin)

If this was a search for PHPR 622

When you work on your PHPR 622 systematic review project, you should also search for alternate drug names in Martindale's: The Complete Drug Reference. Martindale's via LexiComp.  Your PHPR 622 search strategy should include the English and foreign-language generic names, alternate hyhpenated, unhyphenated and no-space forms of any investigational names (as shown for “NGX-4010” in the search strategy above); and (if you're not working on an over-the-counter drug/supplement/treatment) all trade/proprietary/brand names.

Neuropathy

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You do not need to take the time to create a list of all the names of the various kinds of peripheral neuropathies for this tutorial. Instead, just use the alternate terms for neuropathy listed in the MeSH database entry for diabetic neuropathy. 

• Search the MeSH database for  --

diabetic neuropathy

Neuropathy

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You should now be looking at the detailed entry for “diabetic neuropathies”.

 

Neuropathy

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• Copy the entry term list and paste the list into your Word document.

• Remove all the words that are not necessary to indicate that neuropathy is being discussed.

 

Neuropathy

4 of 4Does your list include all the terms in the list below? If not, correct your list.

Neuropathy
Neuropathies
Polyneuropathy
Polyneuropathies
Mononeuropathy
Mononeuropathies
Amyotrophy
Amyotrophies
Neuralgia
Neuralgias

If you were really needed the results of a comprehensive search, I would ask you to construct a much longer and more comprehensive list that included the names of lots of specific, peripheral nervous system diseases.

Term Questions

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Now that you have a list of alternate terms for your neuropathy concept, ask yourself whether your search should include any of the term variants listed below (or include truncated terms that would retrieve these variants):

Please note: the examples listed below are not necessarily relevant to the tutorial search!

• singular and plural forms of any nouns
  ex. include either --
  neuropath*
  -- or --
  neuropathy OR neuropathies
• all forms of any verbs
  ex. either --
  erod*
  -- or --
  erode OR erodes OR eroded OR eroding
• noun forms of any verbs
  ex. either --
  erod* OR erosion*
  -- or --
  erode OR erodes OR eroded OR eroding OR erosion OR erosions
• adjective forms of any nouns
  ex. include either --
  neuropath*
  -- or --
  neuropathic OR neuropathy OR neuropathies
• British as well as American spellings
  ex.
  hematology OR haematology
• nonhyphenated and hyphenated forms of words that are sometimes hyphenated
  ex.
  post-operative OR postoperative
• commonly used abbreviations as well as non-abbreviated terms
  ex.
  ICU OR ICUs OR "intensive care unit" OR "intensive care units"
• relevant opposites
  e.g. If your search included a safety concept, in addition to the safety words, you would need to include danger/harzard/etc. words since authors may talk about "methods for avoiding inherent dangers."

Add additional terms to your list until you can answer yes or not applicable to each of the above questions.

Term Questions

2 of 4Listed below are neuroopathy terms you should have 'harvested' from the MeSH database. Have you included either all the terms in the first column or all the truncated terms in the second column in your list of terms?

Add any terms that you missed to your list.

Term Questions

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Create a search statement from your terms.

• Enclose any multi-word terms (terms containing spaces) within quotation marks.
• Consider truncating any multi-syllable word that has multiple useful endings using an asterisk * (e.g. polyneuropath* can replace polyneuropathy, polyneuropathies, and polyneuropathic).
• Remove any search terms that are no longer needed.
• Join the alternate terms for a single concept using OR.
• Place parentheses around the OR'd together term list.

 

Term Questions

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Did you come up with either of the following search strategies for your peripheral neuropathy concept?

(Neuropath* OR Polyneuropath* OR Mononeuropath* OR Amyotroph* OR Neuralgi*)
- or -
(Neuropathy OR Neuropathies OR neuropathic OR Polyneuropathy OR Polyneuropathies OR polyneuropathic OR Mononeuropathy OR Mononeuropathies OR mononeuropathic OR Amyotrophy OR Amyotrophies OR amyotrophic OR Neuralgia OR Neuralgias OR neuralgic)

If not, correct your search statement.

Join Concepts

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Now it's time to join the capsaicin keyword search statement to the neuropathy keyword search statement. What Boolean Operator (AND, OR, or NOT) should be used for this operation?

Join Concepts

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Did you say that --

AND

--- should be used ? If so you are correct.

• In your Word document, join your capsaicin and neuropathy search strategies using AND.

Join Concepts

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Did you come up with a search strategy like either of the following:

 

(Neuropath* OR Polyneuropath* OR Mononeuropath* OR Amyotroph* OR Neuralgi*) AND (capsaicin OR Capsaicine OR 8-Methyl-N-Vanillyl-6-Nonenamide OR "8 Methyl N Vanillyl 6 Nonenamide" OR Axsain OR Zacin OR "Capsicum Farmaya" OR Capsidol OR Zostrix OR Capzasin OR Gelcen OR Katrum OR NGX-4010 OR "NGX 4010" OR NGX4010 OR Capsin)

--or--

(Neuropathy OR Neuropathies OR neuropathic OR Polyneuropathy OR Polyneuropathies OR polyneuropathic OR Mononeuropathy OR Mononeuropathies OR mononeuropathic OR Amyotrophy OR Amyotrophies OR amyotrophic OR Neuralgia OR Neuralgias OR neuralgic) AND (capsaicin OR Capsaicine OR 8-Methyl-N-Vanillyl-6-Nonenamide OR "8 Methyl N Vanillyl 6 Nonenamide" OR Axsain OR Zacin OR "Capsicum Farmaya" OR Capsidol OR Zostrix OR Capzasin OR Gelcen OR Katrum OR NGX-4010 OR "NGX 4010" OR NGX4010 OR Capsin)

 

If not, make any needed corrections.

Join Concepts

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Now add an --

[all]

-- tag to the end of your search strategy, as shown below:

(Neuropath* OR Polyneuropath* OR Mononeuropath* OR Amyotroph* OR Neuralgi*) AND (capsaicin OR Capsaicine OR 8-Methyl-N-Vanillyl-6-Nonenamide OR "8 Methyl N Vanillyl 6 Nonenamide" OR Axsain OR Zacin OR "Capsicum Farmaya" OR Capsidol OR Zostrix OR Capzasin OR Gelcen OR Katrum OR NGX-4010 OR NGX 4010 OR NGX4010 OR Capsin)[all]

--or--

(Neuropathy OR Neuropathies OR neuropathic OR Polyneuropathy OR Polyneuropathies OR polyneuropathic Mononeuropathy OR Mononeuropathies OR mononeuropathic OR Amyotrophy OR Amyotrophies OR amyotrophic OR Neuralgia OR Neuralgias OR neuralgic) AND (capsaicin OR Capsaicine OR 8-Methyl-N-Vanillyl-6-Nonenamide OR "8 Methyl N Vanillyl 6 Nonenamide" OR Axsain OR Zacin OR "Capsicum Farmaya" OR Capsidol OR Zostrix OR Capzasin OR Gelcen OR Katrum OR NGX-4010 OR NGX 4010 OR NGX4010 OR Capsin)[all]

 

The [all] will stop PubMed from attempting to autocorrect your search terms.

Search PubMed

• Select "PubMed" from the drop-down menu to the left of the search box (red arrow)

• Paste your search strategy into the search box.

• Hit the "Search" button (blue arrow).

Check Messages

It's a good idea to check the messages that appear above the search results.

• First, don't be suckered into clicking on the "Did you mean" search.  This search contains the autocorrections that you used the [all] tag to avoid.  For instance,  the capsaicin brand name "Katrum" has been changed to "atrum".

• If you have a "Filters activated" message, click the "Clear all" link to get rid of the limits you applied to previous searches. (blue arrow in figure)

• If single-word terms are listed as "not found" its a good idea to make sure those terms are spelled correctly in your search.   No need to remove single-word or hyphenated terms.

• In this case the search results all look relevant, but if you ever find that you've retrieved a lot of irrelevant results (especially if  a "Quoted phrase not found" message is present)  it's important to look at the "Search Details" page.  Removing a not found space-containing (quoted) drug name can eliminate a lot of irrelevant results as can adding[tiab] to improperly translated keywords.

Systematic Subset Search

There are several useful variations of the keyword search that you may want to run.

1. Start by looking at a subset of the results that includes practice guidelines, consensus statements, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews. The subset includes un-indexed and indexed records.

 

• Click the UNMC custom "systematic rev.+ meta-analyses + guidelines" filter on the right-hand side of the page.

The "Systematic reviews" "Articles Types" filter (available through customization of the left-hand filters) now only locates systematic reviews, not practice guidelines.  It still, like our "systematic rev.+ meta-analyses + guidelines" custom filter and unlike other "Articles Types" filters, will find both indexed and unindexed records.  The two "Systematic reviews" filter and our "systematic rev.+ meta-analyses + guidelines" custom filter are both little invisible search strategies composed of combinations of journal names, keywords, MeSH, and publication type terms.

Among the useful results of the systematic subset search is a 2017 article in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews that looked at the efficacy of high dose capsaicin.

Unindexed Record Search

2. The second way you will use your keyword search is to search for unindexed records. To find unindexed records  for randomized controlled tirlas:

 

• Add -- NOT MEDLINE[sb] -- to the end of the search statement

 

• Add --

random*

-- to the end of your search strategy. 

Remember, you should not apply a "Randomized Controlled Trials" or a Humans limit to a search for unindexed records.  These filters looks for tags that are added to records by indexers.

RCT Search

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3. The third, and final, variation of your keyword search is a version used to check  the adequacy of your MeSH search.  You limited the MeSH search to randomized controlled trials, about humans, in English.

• Since you're using your keyword search to check the adequacy of a search for indexed records, you can use the same indexer-dependent limits used on your MeSH search.
• • REMOVE the -- NOT MEDLINE[sb] AND random* -- from the end of your search statement!!! (Clicking on the "End" key on your keyboard will get you to the end of the search box quickly.)
  • Click on the "Search" button.
  • One at a time, click on the randomized controlled, English and Human filters.

RCT Search

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• When the search results appear, click on the "Advanced" link under the search box.

• After the "advanced search" page appears, look at your search history.

• When checking the adequacy of a MeSH search, one wants to know which records retrieved by the keyword search were not retrieved by the MeSH search.  So one creates a search for 'keyword search' NOT 'MeSH search' as follows:
• • In the first search box, enter a numeral sign -- # -- followed by the number of the RCT-limited keyword search you just completed (for example, #15).

At this point, your search would look something like:

#15 NOT #8

RCT Search

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• Most of the keyword search results that were not retrieved by the MeSH search will be irrelevant, and I don't expect you to to take the time to study the results of this search during this lab.

If, in the future, you work on such a comparison, you should:

RCT Search

4 of 4When I studied the results of the keyword-MeSH comparison shown in the figure on the preceding page, I found that some relevant records had not been retrieved by the MeSH search because the indexers had indexed capsaicin as a treatment for pain or hyperalgesia in patients with neuropathy rather than as a treatment for neuropathy. Some had not used subheadings with the Capsaicin headings.  Removing the subheadings as shown below results in retrieval of the additional relevant results identified by the keyword search:

"Capsaicin"[Mesh] AND "Peripheral Nervous System Diseases"[Mesh]

Filters: Randomized Controlled Trial; Humans; English

Of course, a few additional irrelevant results were also retrieved by this search (most concerning induction of pain by capsaicin).

Assignment and Quiz

• Copy your search history table, paste it into a Word document, save the document.  You will use the document to respond to Question 1 in the Canvas Quiz.
• Take the Canvas-based PubMed Quiz. 
• You will need to have an adequate search history to complete this section of IPPE orientation.  (Your search history doesn't have to be perfect but does have to demonstrate a credible attempt to finish both the MeSH and keyword portions of the tutorial)
• You will also need to get 5 of the other quiz questions correct.  You may retake the quiz until you get the required 5 correct responses.

 

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