The Committee also reran the search strategies used in some of the Cochrane reviews from the publication date through February 2006. The Committee also considered the reference lists of key studies retrieved in the search, and unpublished data such as conference abstracts identified through the databases.

Together the Committee’s searches generated some 10,000 titles. Two Committee members reviewed all these titles and excluded those obviously unrelated to the targeted interventions. Any title selected by one Committee member remained on the list. IOM staff and consultants then reviewed abstracts of these articles to determine whether they were appropriate for further consideration, using criteria developed by the Committee. A third party resolved any discrepancies, in consultation with the two reviewers.

Committee and staff members then extracted key aspects of these articles—including the study design, their outcome measures, and limitations on their results—for further examination by the Committee. The Committee then assessed the strength and quality of the evidence most relevant to the charge, using the framework described in Chapter 2.

The Committee reran the search strategies from the following Cochrane reviews to identify new references published since the publication date:

• Buprenorphine Maintenance versus Placebo or Methadone Maintenance for Opioid Dependence

• Methadone Maintenance Therapy versus No Opioid Replacement Therapy for Opioid Dependence

• Oral Naltrexone Maintenance Treatment for Opioid Dependence

• Psychosocial Combined with Agonist Maintenance Treatments versus Agonist Maintenance Treatments Alone for Treatment of Opioid Dependence

• Psychosocial Treatment for Opiate Abuse and Dependence

For this topic, the Committee modified search strategies appropriately for each database. The search strategy used on the PubMed database for sterile needle and syringe access is included below.