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Adverse Drug Reactions: Quick Search – Embase

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

Embase

Ovid Training Team

2024-05-08

75 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. 

For its part Embase uses extensive and deep indexing, providing targeted access to over 40 million records. The Embase indexing system is based upon the Emtree thesaurus where special focus is placed on the 3 D’s namely, drugs, devices and diseases.

With respect to deep indexing, Emtree’s understanding of “drug terms” is that of any chemical entity. That said, clinical drugs are indexed in greater depth than other drug terms. The indexing of clinical drugs can also be supplemented or modified using drug subheadings. In Embase the subheadings are specific to each of the 3 D’s; diseases, drugs and devices. One of the 5 key subheadings for drugs, is the subheading Adverse Drug Reaction and for diseases Side Effect. See the reference below for more details on how Embase indexes drugs and chemicals.

The search example demonstrates how in 3 lines, users can make good use of Emtree’s very focused and deep indexing, related to clinical drugs to retrieve specific and authoritative information. In the example Ibrance was submitted as the initial entry term. This, Embase maps to palbociclib, its generic name which in turn, as an Emtree term also covers synonyms and variants. Neutropenia, also submitted as an entry term, was mapped to neutropenia, which also being an Emtree term, similarly covers synonyms and variants.   

  1. exp palbociclib/ae [Adverse Drug Reaction]
  2. exp neutropenia/si [Side Effect]
  3. 1 and 2

The lines of the search can always be supplemented. For example, line #1 could also include the key terms in the form of .mp searches. Similarly with line #2 in respect of the side effect condition.

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

  1. exp < DRUG NAME >/ae [Adverse Drug Reaction]
  2. exp < ADVERSE EVENT >/si [Side Effect]
  3. 1 and 2

The search as listed here is the Embase 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 Ovid MEDLINE, please see Adverse Drug Reactions: Quick Search – Ovid MEDLINE.

Search Stategy

1. exp palbociclib/ae [Adverse Drug Reaction]

2. exp neutropenia/si [Side Effect]

3. 1 and 2

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 – Embase [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=15