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

The question was

What are the most current advancements in treatment of pediatric encopresis?

1     *Encopresis/px,dh,rh,dt,ep,th [Psychology, Diet Therapy,    results= 60   
Rehabilitation, Drug Therapy, Epidemiology, Therapy]
2     limit 1 to yr=1995-2000    results= 31   
3    *Encopresis/px,dh,rh,dt,ep,th [Psychology, Diet Therapy,    results= 60   
Rehabilitation, Drug Therapy, Epidemiology, Therapy]
4    limit 3 to yr=1995-2000    results= 31   
5     *Encopresis/dh,rh,dt,ep,th [Diet Therapy, Rehabilitation,    results= 46   
Drug Therapy, Epidemiology, Therapy]
6     limit 5 to yr=1995-2000    results= 24   
7     from 5 keep 5-7,11,15,18,20,28,36,42    results= 10   

Reference Librarian comments

Fine job. I like how you selected almost all the "therapy" subheadings. I might have chosen "Prevention and Control" also, and I might have NOT checked "Epidemiology," but that's no argument at all. You're using MEDLINE nicely.

I did the search "my way" (see below) and probably didn't get anything you didn't see. There are probably psychological factors relating to encopresis. If that angle were interesting, we'd want to check "psychology" as a subheading. We might even want to search PsycInfo.

Thanks for participating in the assignment.

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Search History
Results
1
exp *Encopresis/dh,px,dt,rh,th [Diet Therapy, Psychology, Drug Therapy, Rehabilitation, Therapy]
57
2
limit 1 to (preschool child < 2 to 5 years > or child < 6 to 12 years > or adolescence < 13 to 18 years >)
54
3
limit 2 to yr=1995-2000
28