Searches for randomized controlled trials of drugs in MEDLINE and EMBASE using only generic drug names compared with searches applied in current practice in systematic reviews.

Journal: Research synthesis methods
PMID:

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is unclear which terms should be included in bibliographic searches for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of drugs, and identifying relevant drug terms can be extremely laborious. The aim of our analysis was to determine whether a bibliographic search using only the generic drug name produces sufficient results for the generation of informative systematic reviews (SRs).

Authors

  • Siw Waffenschmidt
    Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Healthcare, Im Mediapark 8, 50670, Cologne, Germany.
  • Charlotte Guddat
    Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Healthcare, Im Mediapark 8, 50670, Cologne, Germany.