title: Searching for religion and mental health studies required health, social science, and grey literature databases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the optimal databases to search for studies of faith-sensitive interventions for treating depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined 23 health, social science, religious, and grey literature databases searched for an evidence synthesis. Databases were prioritized by yield of (1) search results, (2) potentially relevant references identified during screening, (3) included references contained in the synthesis, and (4) included references that were available in the database. We assessed the impact of databases beyond MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO by their ability to supply studies identifying new themes and issues. We identified pragmatic workload factors that influence database selection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PsycINFO was the best performing database within all priority lists. ArabPsyNet, CINAHL, Dissertations and Theses, EMBASE, Global Health, Health Management Information Consortium, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Sociological Abstracts were essential for our searches to retrieve the included references. Citation tracking activities and the personal library of one of the research teams made significant contributions of unique, relevant references. Religion studies databases (Am Theo Lib Assoc, FRANCIS) did not provide unique, relevant references.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Literature searches for reviews and evidence syntheses of religion and health studies should include social science, grey literature, non-Western databases, personal libraries, and citation tracking activities.
authors.affiliation: Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, 101 Clarendon Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 9LJ, UK. Electronic address: j.m.wright@leeds.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Judy M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, 101 Clarendon Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 9LJ, UK.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Cottrell
authors.affiliation: Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, University of Leeds, 101 Clarendon Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 9LJ, UK.
authors.forename: Ghazala
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mir
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D008603:Mental Health; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012942:Social Sciences
keywords: Bibliographic databases; Depression; Information retrieval; Literature searching; Qualitative research; Religion