1. How often should the FBC be monitored in a pateint taking carbimazole ?

There are three concepts in this search:

1. Carbimazole. Consider expanding this concept to include all antithyroid agents. This is especially important as methimazole is the drug used predominantly in the USA ans Europe, so articles could be published about this drug rather than carbimazole. Explode the MeSH "antithyroid agent"
2. Full blood count. The full blood count is monitored to detect agranulocytosis so it is important to incorporate this term into the search also. Explode the MeSH "agranulocytosis" This will also include "neutropenia"
3. Monitoring. This word could appear in the title or abstract and also as part of a MeSH. Searching for "monitoring" in All Fields will cover all these options

Go to PubMed and try your own search. When complete minimise the PubMed window and then go to the model search to compare. You will also find a direct comparison by clicking on the History in PubMed.

Go to PubMed

Go to model search

Questions or comments ? Please email David Woods

2. Can Paroxetine cause deafness ?

Points to consider:

1. What concepts will you use ?
2. Are you just interested in paroxetine
3. What exactly is "deafness"
4. Selecting the right MeSH

How are you going to improve on the "literal" search below ?

paroxetine AND deafness

Try your own search in PubMed and then comapare with the model search

Go to PubMed

Go to Model Search

Questions or comments ? Please email David Woods

3. What is the safety of tamoxifen in pregnancy ?

There are three important concepts in this search.

1. The drug tamoxifen. Here we are just interested in tamoxifen not "estrogen antagonists" in general or similar drugs in the same class such as "raloxifene". When you go PubMed put tamoxifen in to the MesH browser to see the relationship to other terms. Note that tamoxifen appears in more than one Tree.
2. The next concept is pregnancy, however this is a very general term. Check this out in the MeSH browser. Note what happens if we do a simple search combining tamoxifen AND pregnancy This search produces too many hits and is not specific enough. This is because the term pregnancy is too broad and includes the therapeutic use of tamoxifen in pregnancy and other issues that may not be relevant.
3. The next concept is safety, but alone this concept is too broad. We should look for a term that combines the concepts safety and pregnancy e.g. teratogenicity or birth defects. If you enter these into the MeSH browser this point will be demonstrated and you will find the appropriate terms.

Go to PubMed and try your own search. When complete minimise the PubMed window and then go to the model search to compare. You will also find a direct comparison by clicking on the "History".

Go to PubMed

Go to model search

Questions or comments ? Please email David Woods

There are three concepts here:-

1. Tramadol.
2. Drug interaction. Generally it is best not to include this concept initially unless you encounter poor specificity or too many hits. This is unlikely in this context. How many articles are there likely to be about tramadol and warfarin?
3. Warfarin. Is it just warfarin that you are interested in ? What if there is information about the other coumarin anticoagulants ? This information may also be relevant.

See if you can improve on the following search in PubMed :- tramadol AND warfarin

Compare with the model searches. Note search 2 also uses text words as well as the exploded MeSH. Using a combination of MeSH and textwords will not always produce extra results but is a good general principle to develop for comprehensive searching.

Go to model search 1

Go to model search 2

Questions or comments ? Please email David Woods