Formulating a Question

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​1. Formulate question - briefly describe the key aspects of your search topic

2. Break down your topic into key concepts to formulate a clear clinical question - introducing PICO which can lead to a more focused search strategy

P	Patient/Problem/Population	Describe your patient and their problem
I	Intervention	Describe the main intervention, exposure, test or prognostic factor under consideration
C	Comparison	In the case of treatment, describe a comparative intervention (although a comparison is not always needed)
O	Outcomes	Describe what you hope to achieve, measure or affect.

3. For example, a doctor assesses a patient with depression. The doctor decides to prescribe antidepressant medication but the patient is worried about side-effects. The doctor has heard that CBT has been used to treat depression and carries out a search of the medical literature using the PICO strategy. 

P	Patient/Problem/Population	In a patient with depression
I	Intervention	is CBT/cognitive behaviour therapy
C	Comparison	compared with fluoxetine/prozac
O	Outcomes	better at improving depressive symptoms

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4. Define any limiting factors e.g. publication date, age group, English language​
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