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PubMed - an Introduction

An introduction to and guide for using PubMed - from basic research queries to in depth, personalized information discovery.

Example search

After you've organized your search terms, consider what syntax you will need to use to group synonyms and combine concepts.

For the research question: 

Does Medical Marijuana help with seizures in children who have epilepsy?

Population/Problem

Intervention

Control

Outcome

Children with epilepsy

Medical Marijuana

Other medications?

Doing nothing?

Epileptic seizures

 

Concepts

Children OR

Marijuana OR

Epilepsy OR

Synonyms

Juveniles OR

Minors

Cannabis OR

Seizures OR

Convulsions OR

Subject Headings

AND

“Medical Marijuana”[Mesh]

AND

Epilepsy[Mesh] OR

Seizures[Mesh]

 

A sample PubMed search combining keywords and MeSH terms from the table above: (children OR juveniles OR minors) AND (marijuana OR cannabis OR "Medical Marijuana"[Mesh]) AND (epilepsy OR seizures OR convulsions OR "Epilepsy"[Mesh] OR "Seizures"[Mesh])