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Adverse Drug Reactions: Quick Search – Ovid MEDLINE

How to run a simple yet focused search to quickly identify records connecting a drug and a specific side effect.

Ovid MEDLINE

Ovid Training Team

2024-05-08

61 visits

Background

In busy and demanding healthcare environments, practitioners may often be called upon to obtain up to date information on a specific drug and its possible or even known side effects. The large A&I biomedical databases are able to provide such information. However, given the differences in the way they index the source material, the search strategy needs to be constructed with the database specific indexing methods in mind, in order to obtain the best results.  

The reference below indicates how MEDLINE indexes drugs and chemicals. The search example demonstrates how in 4 lines, users can retrieve specific and authoritative information where Ibrance represents the drug trade name, palbociclib its generic name and neutropenia the known or suspected side effect.  

  1. (Ibrance or palbociclib).mp.
  2. neutropenia.mp.
  3. (adverse effect$ or side effect$).mp.
  4. 1 and 2 and 3

The lines of the search can always be supplemented. For example, line #1 could also include the code attributed to the drug during its development. Line #2 could include synonyms for the condition, as well as variations of neutropenia, e.g. febrile neutropenia.  

For recall and teaching purposes the search could also be documented in the form of a MODEL SEARCH,

  1. (< DRUG TRADE NAME > or < GENERIC TRADE NAME >).mp.
  2. < ADVERSE EVENT >.mp.
  3. (adverse effect$ or side effect$).mp.
  4. 1 and 2 and 3

The search as listed here is the Ovid MEDLINE focused search for running a simple search to quickly identify records connecting a drug and a specific side effect. For the functionally equivalent search in Embase on Ovid, please see Adverse Drug Reactions: Quick Search – Embase.

Search Stategy

1. (Ibrance or palbociclib).mp.

2. neutropenia.mp.

3. (adverse effect$ or side effect$).mp.

4. 1 and 2 and 3

Launch Search

Reviewers

Primary: Michael Fanning

Secondary: Charlotte Viken

Review Date: 2024-05-08

Expiry Date: 2025-05-08

Original search produced by:

Ovid Training Team

Citation:

OvidGO! Portal. Focused Searches: Adverse Drug Reactions: Quick Search – Ovid MEDLINE [Internet]. London (UK): Ovid Training Team (Editors); 2024 [updated 25 October 2024; cited 30 October 2024]. Available from: https://tools.ovid.com/ovidgo/searches/view.php?id=14