Question: Oral nicotine pouches for cessation or reduction of use of other tobacco or nicotine products
| item | entry |
|---|---|
| 1 Database name | PubMed (MEDLINE and PubMed-only records); Europe PMC; ClinicalTrials.gov |
| 2 Multi-database searching | Each source searched separately with its own syntax (queries.json) |
| 3 Study registries | ClinicalTrials.gov via API v2; WHO ICTRP and others: not searched by this skill (state in the review) |
| 4 Online resources and browsing | Not performed unless listed in search_log.json |
| 5 Citation searching | Backward and forward citation searching of included studies and relevant reviews (citation_chase.py), when run |
| 6 Contacts | None (benchmark or automated run) |
| 7 Other methods | None |
| 8 Full search strategies | queries.json (exact strings as executed); translations/ for CENTRAL and Embase |
| 9 Limits and restrictions | Date: records added up to 2025-01-13 from 2000-01-01; no language restriction; design filter: none |
| 10 Search filters | None |
| 11 Prior work | None stated |
| 12 Updates | Not applicable unless this run is an update |
| 13 Dates of searches | See search_log.json (timestamp per source) |
| 14 Peer review | PRESS self-check by the agent (strategy.json 'press_check'); no independent peer review |
| 15 Total records | See search_log.json and 03_dedupe counts |
| 16 Deduplication | records_dedupe.py: identifiers then normalised title, first author and year |
PubMed
((("nicotine pouch*"[tiab] OR "oral nicotine"[tiab] OR "tobacco-free nicotine"[tiab] OR "non-tobacco nicotine"[tiab] OR "nontobacco nicotine"[tiab] OR "tobacco-free snus"[tiab] OR "tobacco-free pouch*"[tiab] OR "tobacco-free oral"[tiab] OR "tobacco leaf-free"[tiab] OR "white snus"[tiab] OR "nicotine snus"[tiab] OR "snus-like"[tiab] OR snus[tiab] OR nicopod*[tiab] OR "nicotine sachet*"[tiab] OR "smokeless nicotine"[tiab] OR "modern oral nicotine"[tiab] OR zyn[tiab] OR zonnic[tiab] OR epok[tiab] OR skruf[tiab] OR "nordic spirit"[tiab] OR dryft[tiab] OR "white fox"[tiab] OR killa[tiab] OR "juice head"[tiab])) OR (pouch*[tiab] AND nicotine[tiab]) OR ((velo[tiab] OR lyft[tiab]) AND (nicotine[tiab] OR tobacco[tiab] OR snus[tiab] OR pouch*[tiab])) OR ("modern oral"[tiab] AND (nicotine[tiab] OR tobacco[tiab])) OR ("all-white"[tiab] AND (nicotine[tiab] OR snus[tiab] OR pouch*[tiab])))
Europe PMC
((((((TITLE_ABS:nicotine AND TITLE_ABS:pouch*)) OR (TITLE_ABS:"oral nicotine") OR (TITLE_ABS:"tobacco-free nicotine") OR (TITLE_ABS:"non-tobacco nicotine") OR (TITLE_ABS:"nontobacco nicotine") OR (TITLE_ABS:"tobacco-free snus") OR ((TITLE_ABS:tobacco AND TITLE_ABS:free AND TITLE_ABS:pouch*)) OR (TITLE_ABS:"tobacco-free oral") OR (TITLE_ABS:"tobacco leaf-free") OR (TITLE_ABS:"white snus") OR (TITLE_ABS:"nicotine snus") OR (TITLE_ABS:"snus-like") OR (TITLE_ABS:snus) OR (TITLE_ABS:nicopod*) OR ((TITLE_ABS:nicotine AND TITLE_ABS:sachet*)) OR (TITLE_ABS:"smokeless nicotine") OR (TITLE_ABS:"modern oral nicotine") OR (TITLE_ABS:zyn) OR (TITLE_ABS:zonnic) OR (TITLE_ABS:epok) OR (TITLE_ABS:skruf) OR (TITLE_ABS:"nordic spirit") OR (TITLE_ABS:dryft) OR (TITLE_ABS:"white fox") OR (TITLE_ABS:killa) OR (TITLE_ABS:"juice head"))) NOT SRC:PAT) OR ((((TITLE_ABS:velo) OR (TITLE_ABS:lyft)) AND ((TITLE_ABS:nicotine) OR (TITLE_ABS:tobacco) OR (TITLE_ABS:snus) OR (TITLE_ABS:pouch*))) NOT SRC:PAT) OR (((TITLE_ABS:"modern oral") AND ((TITLE_ABS:nicotine) OR (TITLE_ABS:tobacco))) NOT SRC:PAT) OR (((TITLE_ABS:"all-white") AND ((TITLE_ABS:nicotine) OR (TITLE_ABS:snus) OR (TITLE_ABS:pouch*))) NOT SRC:PAT))
ClinicalTrials.gov
{ "query.cond": "", "query.intr": "\"nicotine pouch\" OR \"nicotine pouches\" OR \"oral nicotine\" OR \"tobacco-free nicotine\" OR \"tobacco-free snus\" OR \"white snus\" OR snus OR nicopod OR ZYN OR VELO OR Lyft OR Rogue OR Zonnic OR Epok OR Skruf OR \"Nordic Spirit\" OR Dryft", "interventional_only": true }
PRESS self-check
- 1_concepts: Single intervention block covering the generic name (nicotine pouch*, with the word-order-free pouch* AND nicotine line), the product-class names (oral nicotine, tobacco-free / non-tobacco nicotine, tobacco-free snus/pouch/oral, tobacco leaf-free, white snus, nicotine snus, snus-like, snus, nicopod*, nicotine sachet*/portion*, smokeless nicotine, modern oral nicotine / modern oral + nicotine, all-white) and brand and manufacturer product lines current, historical and regional (ZYN, VELO, Lyft, Zonnic, Epok, Skruf, Nordic Spirit, Dryft, White Fox, Killa, Juice Head). British/American spelling is not an issue for these terms. Generic-word brands and 'on!' are deliberately not searched (see block notes).
- 2_boolean: OR within the block and within each extra line; the single block is ANDed with nothing except the date limit; the only NOT is the Europe PMC patent exclusion (source_filters) and the same clause inside the Europe PMC extra lines.
- 3_subject_headings: No MeSH descriptor exists for nicotine pouches; 'Tobacco, Smokeless' is scoped to tobacco-leaf products and would add about 2,975 records without naming ONP, so free text only (every term field-tagged [tiab] / TITLE_ABS).
- 4_truncation: pouch*, nicopod*, sachet* truncated; phrases truncated only at the end ("nicotine pouch*", "tobacco-free pouch*"); zyn/epok/skruf/dryft/killa are exact tokens; no stem shorter than four characters. "nicotine portion*" was dropped: 0 PubMed hits, and the Europe PMC builder expands a truncated phrase to ANDed words (nicotine AND portion*), which would add unrelated records.
- 5_limits: Dates only: from 2000-01-01 (protocol) to 2025-01-13 (last search date). No language, publication-type or design limits; the Europe PMC patent exclusion is a source-specific restriction.
- 6_yield: Probe yields (PubMed, 2000-01-01 to 2025-01-13, --max-per-source 1, work_s2/probes): "nicotine pouch*" 169; pouch* AND nicotine 228; "oral nicotine" 257; snus 775; "tobacco-free nicotine" 59; guarded VELO/Lyft/ZYN 37; the other terms 0-89 each. Full-strategy probe (work_s2/full_probe): PubMed 1,210, Europe PMC 1,398, ClinicalTrials.gov 132 - far below the 8,000 threshold, so no block was tightened; the final counts are in search_log.json.
Coverage of the original team's sources (benchmark replication note)
The protocol (00_input/protocol_input.md, "Search methods for identification of studies") names: MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), CENTRAL via the Cochrane Register of Studies (covering ClinicalTrials.gov and the WHO ICTRP), contact with experts and reference lists of included studies; last search 2025-01-13; searches limited to 2000 onwards, no language or publication-format limits.
| original source | this run | note |
|---|---|---|
| MEDLINE (Ovid) | covered | PubMed (MEDLINE plus PubMed-only and ahead-of-print records); date limit on the Entrez (added) date, so a record published before 2025-01-13 but added later is missed (expected, see search-strategy.md) |
| Embase (Ovid) | not covered | translations/embase.txt is an Ovid-style string for a person to run; Embase-only records (conference abstracts, Embase-only journals) are not retrieved |
| PsycINFO (Ovid) | not covered | no PsycINFO access in this skill and no translation written by the builder; PsycINFO-only records are not retrieved |
| CENTRAL (Cochrane Register of Studies) | not covered | translations/central.txt is for a person to run; CENTRAL-only records (hand-searched conference abstracts, records from the ICTRP feed) are not retrieved |
| ClinicalTrials.gov (via CENTRAL) | covered directly | ClinicalTrials.gov API v2, interventional studies first posted 2000-01-01 to 2025-01-13; the original team reached it through CENTRAL |
| WHO ICTRP (via CENTRAL) | not covered | no ICTRP access in this skill; registries other than ClinicalTrials.gov (ISRCTN, ANZCTR, DRKS, CTRI, EU-CTR, ChiCTR, UMIN ...) are reached only when a retrieved publication carries their identifier |
| Contact with experts | not performed | benchmark replication |
| Reference lists of included studies | deferred | citation_chase.py at S6b, after full-text selection |
| (addition) Europe PMC | added | not in the original list; brings preprints, Europe PMC-indexed journals and open-access full-text records, which partly stands in for Embase/CENTRAL coverage of recent material; patents excluded (NOT SRC:PAT) |
Design filter: none, because the protocol admits interrupted and multiple time-series studies for the prevalence objectives; the original team's description ("free text and controlled vocabulary relating to ONPs") likewise mentions no study-design filter. The two guarded extra lines for brand names and the (pouch* AND nicotine) line appear only in the PubMed and Europe PMC strings; the Ovid translations do not carry them and would need those lines added by the person running CENTRAL/Embase.
Yield (search_log.json, run 2026-10-14): PubMed 1,210; Europe PMC 1,248; ClinicalTrials.gov 132; 2,590 records; 0 removed by the exclude list (the excluded protocol and review fall after the date limit). After records_dedupe.py: 1,408 unique records (1,182 duplicates removed; 1,150 records found in both PubMed and Europe PMC).