Table 2 Search comparison table
From: The use of rapid review methods in health technology assessments: 3 case studies
| Â | Sexual health of people with severe mental illness [12] | Premature ejaculation [13] | Cannabis cessation [14] |
|---|---|---|---|
Scoping search date | November 2013 | July 2013 | January 2014 |
Design of included studies | RCTs comparing sexual health interventions with usual care for adults with severe mental illness (SMI) | RCTs of interventions for premature ejaculation (data extracted from existing reviews where available), or non-RCT evidence for any treatments where no RCTs exist | RCTs of psychological or psychosocial interventions for cannabis cessation in regular users of cannabis |
Approaches to searching | Electronic database; contact experts; reference tracking | Electronic database; contact experts; reference tracking | Electronic database; contact experts; reference tracking |
Sources to search | Four electronic databases (3 health and 1 subject specific); conference proceedings database; clinical trials registers; UK/International mental health organisations | Five electronic databases (2 health, 1 nursing and 1 multidisciplinary); conference proceedings databases; FDA or EMA websites | Four electronic databases (3 health and 1 subject specific); conference proceedings database; clinical trials registers; UK/International societies and organisations |
Search strategy | Single strategy (17 statements for Medline) with RCT filter. Included all terms for SMI and focused mental health terms (schizophrenia, schizoaffective or bipolar) combined with various broad sexual health-related terms. Results from the Medline scoping search was compared to see if RCTs from a known Cochrane review had been missed | Focused strategy (8 statements for Medline) comprising terms for premature ejaculation with filters to identify RCTs, reviews or guidelines | Single strategy (28 statements for Medline) with filters to identify reviews and RCTs. Cannabis terms (comprehensive) combined with broad psychotherapy and behavioural therapy terms (derived from the scoping search). The strategy was developed from three known Cochrane reviews. Title and abstract keywords were incorporated into the strategy and checked to see if known RCTs included in the reviews have been captured by the strategy |
Challenges | Not all mental health condition terms included. Individual sexually transmitted infections or behavioural terms not searched, due to the anticipated large number of irrelevant papers that would be identified | No specific intervention terms included due to large number of potential interventions. This increased potential for retrieval of a large number of records, but scoping searches indicated it would be a manageable number | Not all individually named psychotherapy or behavioural therapy terms searched due to the anticipated large number of irrelevant papers that would be identified |
Records retrieved in Medline scoping search | RCTs filter 684 | RCTs filter 521; systematic reviews filter 653; cohort studies filter 596; guidelines filter 9 | RCTs filter 361; systematic reviews filter 36 |
Main search date | December 2013 | August 2013 | February 2014 |
Total records from main database search | 2586 | 2283 | 1079 |