Module 3

I wanted to look for the treatment guideline related to co-morbidity of PTSD and Alcohol Dependence. When I used the EndNote, it brought up 118 articles related to PTSD and Alcohol Dependence. I still have to sift through quality articles and when I tried to find a full text, it retrieved only 17 full texts of articles and four full texts of articles are related to the topics. I also used the National Guideline Clearing House, which retrieved only 12 articles related to PTSD and Alcohol Dependence. However, only four of 12 articles were the treatment guidelines related to co-morbidity of PTSD and Alcohol Dependence. The Google search is easy and convenient to search information related to the topics in diverse sources, but the quality of information needs to be examined due to an easy access that anyone can post information in a web search. When I entered the key words”PTSD and Alcohol Dependence and treatment Guideline”, I got over 264,000 results. When I entered the same key words in the PubMed, it brought up 1042 articles. However, I noticed that some articles are not related to topics that I was looking for. It is easy to retrieve numbers of articles in a short time, but I have to spend time sifting through to choose the quality articles. When I used the advance search by using the same key words, it retrieved 12 articles that were specifically related to topics. I think the PubMed is fast and easy to use for searching articles compared to other electronic indexes. Overall, I think an electronic index, a guideline index, and a web search engine are useful and have a unique quality for diverse resources for searching information. For example, when writing a term paper or a synthesis, you would enjoy using the EndNote by importing or exporting articles from other databases. If you are searching for a treatment, guideline related to a specific topic, the PubMED and the National Guideline Clearing House might be the better choice.