Question about search string
Millakit opened this issue · 1 comments
Hi, I am not a coder, a friend helped set it up, but autoresearcher is amazing!
My issue is that autoresearcher missed the most obvious articles no matter what I asked.
I asked about drug interactions and the herb Echinacea. I tried various search strings, from complex to a very simple one: "Echinacea, drug interactions"
Each time autoresearchers produced accurate keyword combinations to search for papers such as: 1. Echinacea, medication, interactions, 2. Herbal remedies, drug interactions, Echinacea, 3. Echinacea, prescription drugs, interactions, 4. Echinacea, supplements, drug interactions, 5. Echinacea, adverse effects, drug interactions
However, each time autoresearcher failed to identify and use the two articles listed below. Only if I actually included the very title of the papers in the search string, would autoresearcher include them.
The most obvious articles where not found and some articles with little relevance were included.
My questions are why this is and what I could do about improving the search questions?
thank you very much
These two articles were not included. The first one even has echinacea and drug interactions in its title. The second paper has a detail abstracts and also mentions echinacea and drug interactions.
A critical evaluation of drug interactions with Echinacea spp
Camille Freeman, Kevin Spelman
PMID: 18618481 DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.200700113
Review and Assessment of Medicinal Safety Data of Orally Used Echinacea Preparations
Karin Ardjomand-Woelkart, Rudolf Bauer
PMID: 26441065 DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1558096
Keyword combinations used to search for papers: 1. Echinacea, medication, interactions, 2. Herbal remedies, drug interactions, Echinacea, 3. Echinacea, prescription drugs, interactions, 4. Echinacea, supplements, drug interactions, 5. Echinacea, adverse effects, drug interactions
Literature Review:
Echinacea is a commonly used herbal remedy for the prevention of common cold, but its efficacy remains inconclusive or contradictory (Izzo et al., 2016). Moreover, it may cause potentially serious adverse events, including herb-drug interactions (Izzo et al., 2016). A study by Qato et al. (2016) found that 15.1% of older adults were at risk for potential major drug-drug interactions, and most of these interactions involved medications and dietary supplements increasingly used in 2010-2011, including echinacea. Sparreboom et al. (2004) reported that echinacea has the potential to significantly modulate the activity of drug-metabolizing enzymes and/or the drug transporter P-glycoprotein, and participates in potential pharmacokinetic interactions with anticancer drugs. Sachar and Ma (2013) suggested that echinacea may cause herb-drug interactions through nuclear receptors (NRs) activation, resulting in NR-mediated HDIs. Parvez and Rishi (2019) warned that there exists a potential risk of herb-drug interactions leading to adverse side effects, including hepatotoxicity.
Despite the potential risks associated with echinacea use, it is still one of the most commonly used herbal remedies in the presurgical population (Tsen et al., 2000). However, the article by Chen et al. (2012) did not mention echinacea in their abstract, which focused on possible pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and herbal drug interactions occurring in the elderly.
Overall, the literature suggests that echinacea may have potential herb-drug interactions and adverse events, and caution should be exercised when using it in combination with other medications or supplements. Further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms and clinical implications of echinacea-related herb-drug interactions.
References:
Chen, X.-W., B. Sneed, K., Pan, S.-Y., Cao, C., R. Kanwar, J., Chew, H., & Zhou, S.-F. (2012, May 1). Herb-Drug Interactions and Mechanistic and Clinical Considerations. Current Drug Metabolism. Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. http://doi.org/10.2174/1389200211209050640
Izzo, A. A., Hoon-Kim, S., Radhakrishnan, R., & Williamson, E. M. (2016, February 17). A Critical Approach to Evaluating Clinical Efficacy, Adverse Events and Drug Interactions of Herbal Remedies. Phytotherapy Research. Wiley. http://doi.org/10.1002/ptr.5591
Parvez, M. K., & Rishi, V. (2019, June 11). Herb-Drug Interactions and Hepatotoxicity. Current Drug Metabolism. Bentham Science Publishers Ltd. http://doi.org/10.2174/1389200220666190325141422
Qato, D. M., Wilder, J., Schumm, L. P., Gillet, V., & Alexander, G. C. (2016, April 1). Changes in Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medication and Dietary Supplement Use Among Older Adults in the United States, 2005 vs 2011. JAMA Internal Medicine. American Medical Association (AMA). http://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.8581
Sachar, M., & Ma, X. (2013, January 21). Nuclear receptors in herb–drug interactions. Drug Metabolism Reviews. Informa UK Limited. http://doi.org/10.3109/03602532.2012.753902
Sparreboom, A., Cox, M. C., Acharya, M. R., & Figg, W. D. (2004, June 15). Herbal Remedies in the United States: Potential Adverse Interactions With Anticancer Agents. Journal of Clinical Oncology. American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). http://doi.org/10.1200/jco.2004.08.182
Tsen, L. C., Segal, S., Pothier, M., & Bader, A. M. (2000, July 1). Alternative Medicine Use in Presurgical Patients. Anesthesiology. Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). http://doi.org/10.1097/00000542-200007000-00025
Gujjarlamudi, H. (2016). Polytherapy and drug interactions in elderly. Journal of Mid-life Health. Medknow. http://doi.org/10.4103/0976-7800.191021
I came to autoresearcher after having explored Perplexity.ai
It produced a good report, which did included one of the missing papers from above:
Perplexity:
There are three search results related to drug interactions with Echinacea spp. The first two results are the same critical review article12.
The article assessed the occurrence of drug interactions with Echinacea angustifolia, E. pallida, and E. purpurea, and only eight papers containing primary data relating to drug interactions were identified.
The review concluded that herbal remedies made from E. purpurea appear to have a low potential to generate cytochrome P450 (CYP 450) drug-herb interactions including CYP 450 1A2 (CYP1A2) and CYP 450 3A4 (CYP3A4).
Currently, there are no verifiable reports of drug-herb interactions with any echinacea product12.
The third search result is a systematic literature review that evaluated documented drug interactions and contraindications associated with herbs and dietary supplements3. The review found that many available references for herbs and dietary supplements list numerous 'potential HDS–drug interactions' with little clinical significance or risk. However, the review did not specifically mention Echinacea spp.
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18618481/
• https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-critical-evaluation-of-drug-interactions-with-Freeman-Spelman/d2f7887dfcc6569dd3dab0c2ceb4eca4f2f5baf4
• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1742-1241.2012.03008.x