PsycINFO search strategies identified methodologically sound therapy studies and review articles for use by clinicians and researchers.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated search strategies for finding high-quality studies on treatment and systematic reviews in PsycINFO.


METHODS
Sixty-four journals were hand searched at McMaster University. Methodologic criteria were applied to clinically relevant articles to identify "pass" and "fail" articles; 4,985 candidate terms were compiled, 7,463 combinations for therapy articles, and 5,246 combinations for reviews. Candidate search strategy results were compared with hand searches. The proposed strategies served as "diagnostic tests" for sound studies; the hand searches were the "gold standard." Sensitivity, specificity, precision, and accuracy were calculated.


RESULTS
Of 716 treatment articles, 233 (32.5%) met criteria for scientific merit, and 58 (11.5%) of 506 review articles met criteria for systematic reviews. For treatment studies, combined terms had a peak sensitivity of 97.9% (specificity 52.2%). Maximum specificity was 97.7% (sensitivity 51.5%). Sensitivity and specificity were each 79% when optimizing both while minimizing their difference. For review articles, combined terms had a peak sensitivity of 81.0% (specificity 54.4%). Maximum specificity was 98.1% (sensitivity 51.7%). Sensitivity and specificity were each 65% when optimizing both while minimizing their difference.


CONCLUSIONS
Empirically derived search strategies can achieve high sensitivity and specificity for retrieving sound treatment studies and review articles from PsycINFO.
Eady
Angela May
AM
Health Information Research Unit, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Wilczynski
Nancy L
NL
Haynes
R Brian
RB
D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D046650:Medical Subject Headings; D011570:Psychiatry; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity