Natural Standard – Evidence-Based Complementary Health Information

“Is Holy Basil an effective herbal therapy for depression?” This is an actual question that came up a few months ago at chart rounds. The answer ("no") was found in “Natural Standard”, a database highlighting complementary and alternative therapies. Not only does Natural Standard provide entries for herbals (such as Holy Basil, St. John’s Wort, Ginkgo, etc.) and complementary therapies (like acupuncture and Reiki), it also discusses scientific levels of evidence for common and/or studied uses when available. Natural Standard is on the Lamar Soutter Library’s web page under “Research Tools & Resources”, then “Find Resources by Subject” and then “Complementary Therapies”.

Searching the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC)

Searching NGC can be frustrating and retrieving relevant guidelines can be hit or miss. Here are a few suggestions that may help. When you open NGC, click on “Detailed Search” located on the left of the screen. The “Detailed Search” template offers multiple search boxes. Use a few boxes to describe your topic of interest rather than trying to define your topic narrowly. The search boxes to start with are: Keyword; Disease Condition; Guideline Category; Age of Target Population and Years. You can try searching with all of these categories or use three or four. Restricting the number of years you want to search is an efficient way to control your results.