Iowa Drug Information Service (IDIS)

Iowa Drug Information Service (IDIS)

Publisher University of Iowa College of Pharmacy

Division of Drug Information

Years Covered 1966 to Present

Scope Only includes articles about drugs in human

therapy

Iowa Drug Information Service (IDIS)

Immediate access* to full-text articles from 200+ English-language biomedical journals (includes several international journals) * = from 1995 to Present available as PDF

document Prior to 1995, full-text articles are on microfiche

CD Search Screen

Internet Search Screen

Controlled Vocabulary

Similar to MeSH terms and Limits Drug Disease Descriptor

Drug

Valid drug name is the United States Adopted Name (USAN).

Valid drug number is a 7- or 8-digit modified American Hospital Formulary Service (AHFS) number.

Therapeutic categories are arranged in hierarchal order.

Examples: 24000000- Cardiovascular agents 24040000 – Cardiac agents 24040100 – Cardiac glycosides 24040103 – Digitoxin

Disease

Valid disease names and code numbers are from the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) (a commonly used system of classifying diseases).

Example: If you search for “varicose vein” in the Thesaurus, using the Look Up

button next to the Disease field, or using the Disease Hierarchy, you will find several types of varicose veins and their associated codes:

• VARICOSE VEIN, LW EXTREMITY 454. • VARICOSE VEIN NEC 456.• VARICOSE VEIN, ESOPHAGEAL 456.0• VARICOSE VEIN, SCROTAL 456.4• VARICOSE VEIN, VULVAL 456.6

The periods in the codes subdivide the disease terms. The term NEC means “not elsewhere classified”

Descriptor

There are more than 150 valid descriptor terms (with codes) which further limit information. Click the Look Up button next to the Descriptor field to see the entire list.

Get to know the descriptors. Use the Descriptor Definitions link to search for

the definition if you don’t understand what it means.

Examples: Study Randomized Adult 135 Side Ef Musculoskeletal 77 Adm Parent Intraarticular 114

Descriptor Categories

Article type (and population – adult, pediatric, geriatric) Case report/series, reports, reviews, studies (case-

controlled, cohort, randomized), government document, design/analysis (cross-over, meta-analysis, n-of-one trial, practice guideline, systematic review), and continuing education.

Outcome Clinical results, economic outcomes, general outcomes,

quality of life.

Descriptor Categories (continued)

Pharmaceutic Drug analysis, drug manufacture, drug properties,

pharmaceutic incompatibilities, pharmaceutics.

Therapeutic Route of administration, clinical incompatibilities

(contraindication, drug interaction, lab interaction, dietary interaction), clinical issues (dosage, mechanism of action, modification of effect, pharmacodynamics), drug use, side effects/adverse reactions, toxicology.

Thesaurus

Cross references all synonyms, trade names, or concepts to their valid drug/disease/descriptor terms/codes (valid terms appear in uppercase followed by their code numbers).

Note that in the Thesaurus: (DR) = drug term (DI) = disease term (DE) = descriptor term

Examples: thyroid dr – locates the word thyroid in the Drug field thyroid di – locates the word thyroid in the Disease field thyroid de – locates the word thyroid in the Descriptor field

Other Ways to Search

Word(s) in the title and/or the abstract

Author(s) (you can use the Look Up button next to this field) Example (enclose in quotation marks: last name,

space, first initial, space, second initial):• “Smith J P” (you know the author’s last, first, and middle [if

there is one] initials; IDIS even indexes the third initial if one is provided in the article)

• “Smith J” (will give you all the Smiths whose first name begins with “J”)

• “Smith” (will give you all the Smiths)• “Smith*” (will give you all the authors with Smith as the first 5

letters of their last names – Smith, Smithard, Smithee, Smithells, etc.)

Other Ways to Search (continued)

Journal (must use the correct IDIS journal abbreviation; use the Look Up button next to this field to locate the correct abbreviation)

Volume, issue, starting page number (if known)

Year Default is all years through current year. For 1 year, enter the same year into both the starting

and ending year fields. For a range of years, enter the starting year and ending

year.

Other Ways to Search (continued)

Article number (if known)

Sequence number (if known) – don’t worry about this too much. Each article is assigned 1 unique article number, but sometimes it will have 2 sequence numbers if all our indexing terms won’t fit in one record or if the article contains more than one primary concept.

All fields – Caution: use of this field will result in MANY irrelevant citations (cross references of cross references of cross references, etc., in the Thesaurus are checked). This field is good to search for unique terms, abbreviations, or exact phrases that do not have a valid drug, disease, or descriptor term.

Example

Search for case reports in which rasburicase was used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children.

Example: Using the Lookup Buttons

Drug Valid term/number: "RASBURICASE

2000004"

Disease Valid term/number: "LEUKEMIA, LYMPHOID,

ACUTE 204.0"

Descriptor Valid term/number: "CASE REPORT

PEDIATRIC 1"

Example: Using the Thesaurus

rasburicase dr• Locates rasburicase in the Drug field (RASBURICASE

2000004)

acute lymphoblastic leukemia di• Locates acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the Disease field

(LEUKEMIA, LYMPHOID, ACUTE 204.0)

case report de• Locates case report in the Descriptor field – there are 3 types;

select the one that applies to children (CASE REPORT PEDIATRIC 1)

• In this example, you will have to use “common sense” or the thesaurus of a dictionary to determine that pediatric = children. Use the Descriptor Definitions link to find that a pediatric patient is a newborn to 12 years of age.

Example: Results

This search yields 2 results (articles 559551 and 505702)

To see all the terms that were used to index the article, change the “Output/Display Format” to Full Results and click Adjust. This is similar to looking at the full citation in PubMed to get an idea of other terms you might want to search for. Note about Full Results: You can work backwards if you find a

relevant citation in another database; locate the article in IDIS using the other fields or general terms, look at the “Full Results” of what you get to see the valid terms, plug them in, and redo the search to locate more articles on the subject.

Click on the article number to read the article.

IDIS Search Tips

General Search Tips

The key to successful searching in the IDIS database is being able to use and apply the Drug, Disease, and Descriptor fields.

Before executing the search, make sure your operators make sense. If not, correct them. There are different defaults (“and” vs. “or”) in different fields.

Truncating Words

Use the asterisk (*) to truncate words. This will allow you to find the term if it isn’t indexed exactly the way you think it is. For example, “kidney ston*” would find kidney stone, kidney stones, kidney stonage, kidney stoning (all of these terms aren’t in IDIS or even real terms, but this is just to give you an example). Think about appropriate places to truncate terms.

Sources of Help Within IDIS

Help linkLinks on the left side of the screenInformation button (i) next to each field

Thesaurus

The Thesaurus is the official “dictionary” of controlled vocabulary terms.

Don’t forget to add DR, DI, or DE, depending on what you are looking for so that you won’t have to scroll through irrelevant terms.

Exploding Drug Classes

Explode drug classes by locating the class in the Thesaurus, and truncating the drug code at the appropriate place.

For example, if you search 24040100 (cardiac glycosides – a class of drugs), your search will only retrieve articles that talk about that class in general. It will not locate articles about the individual drugs in the class. If you wanted information about all cardiac glycosides, you should search 240401*. This will pick up 24040101 (deslanoside), 24040102 (digitalis), 24040103 (digoxin), etc.

Population Tags

IDIS uses “population tags” in the Disease field: Neonate, pediatric, puberty and adolescence, and

geriatric are all “population tags” that can be used in the Disease field (search the Thesaurus for them).

If you are looking for any type of article related to one of these age groups, use the appropriate population tag in the Disease field (instead of searching for the age group using an article type in the Descriptor field).

Article Classifications Without Descriptors

Search Author field for: “Editorial” - editorial “Letter to ed” – letter to the editor

Search Disease field for: “Corrigendum” – erratum, addendum,

retraction (type will be indicated in Title field)

Specific Types of Questions:Side/Effect Adverse Reaction Caused by a Drug

Locate articles about a side effect/adverse reaction that a drug causes: Drug:

• Enter the drug that is causing the side effect/adverse reaction. Disease:

• In general, you won’t need a disease term because the drug will likely cause the side effect/adverse reaction in all diseases, so disease isn’t important in these cases (unless the question specifies a specific disease).

Descriptor: • Use the appropriate side effect/adverse effect descriptor.

Searching the Thesaurus for “drug induced” and the side effect/adverse reaction that you are looking for will usually provide the correct descriptor.

Specific Types of Questions:Drug Used to Treat Side Effect/Adverse Reaction

Locate articles about a drug that is used to treat a side effect/adverse reaction of a drug: Drug:

• Enter the drug that is being used to treat the side effect, NOT the drug that caused it .

Disease: • Enter the term “ TX/AE-Drug/Chemical E999.” plus the disease

term/code for the disease that the drug caused. Descriptor:

• Generally will not use a side effect/adverse reaction descriptor unless it has to do with the drug that is in the Drug field. Other types of descriptors may apply if the question calls for it.

Specific Types of Questions:Drug Interactions

Locate articles about two or more drugs that interact: Drug:

• Enter all drugs that interact (use AND operator). Disease:

• Generally won’t use Descriptor:

• “Drug interaction 50” and “Drug combination 16”– Alternatively, you can enter:

• 50 and 16

Specific Types of Questions:Drug Used to Prevent a Disease

Find articles about a drug(s) that are used to prevent a disease: Drug:

• Enter the drug(s) that is/are being use to prevent the disease.

Disease:• Enter the term “Prophylaxis NEC V07.” plus the

disease term/code that the drug is preventing. Descriptor:

• As indicated.

Specific Types of Questions:Suicide/Overdose/Poisoning

Find information about a drug that someone has overdosed or been overdosed on, has tried to commit suicide with, has been poisoned with, or is showing signs of toxicity from: Drug:

• Enter the drug(s) of interest.

Disease:• Enter the term/code “Suicide/Overdose/Poisoning E950.”

Descriptor: • As indicated.