On Doctoring MEDLINE searches, with reference librarian comments, March 2000

The question was

What is the efficacy of the different treatments for a patient with chronic fatigue syndrome?

1     exp Fatigue syndrome, chronic/dh,dt,th [Diet Therapy, Drug    results=347   
Therapy, Therapy]
2    limit 1 to (english language and yr=1991-2000)    results=306   
3     limit 2 to (evidence based medicine reviews and human and    results= 4   
english language and yr=1991-2000)
4     limit 2 to (local holdings and human and english language    results=233   
and yr=1991-2000)
5     exp *fatigue syndrome, chronic/dh,dt,th    results=158   
6     limit 5 to (local holdings and human and english language    results=76   
and yr=1995-2000)

Reference Librarian comments

I like your strategy and thinking, and your going to the "EBM" check-box to see if there were structured reviews on the topic. It's hard for me to see exactly what you ended up with, but that's OK. Ovid doesn't tell me every little detail of what you did. A fine job.

Just for fun, I did the same search in a slightly different way, just to see what I'd get. I decided to "asterisk" the subject heading in set #1, to get fewer but more "on target" (focused) references. And then I did other fancy tricks.

Thanks you for participating in the assignment.

Medline 1991 to January 2000

#
Search History
Results

1
exp *fatigue syndrome, chronic/dh,dt,th
158

2
limit 1 to (human and english language)
143

3
limit 2 to ebm reviews
4

4
limit 3 to randomized controlled trial
4

5
double blind$.tw.
24826

6
placebo$.tw.
32058

7
2 and (5 or 6)
25

8
3 or 4 or 7
28