Critical Appraisal Literature Review | Doc

Running head: Critical Appraisal Literature Review 1
Critical Appraisal Literature Review
Author’s name
Institutional Affiliation

Critical Appraisal Literature Review 2
1. What is the review purpose, objective or question?
The primary purpose of the review was to identify and synthesize the results obtained
from various randomized controlled trials of non-pharmacological interventions meant to
improve sleep in depression patients. Additionally, the review also aimed to examine whether
such sleep improvements in patients with depression were of high quality in order to determine
whether heterogeneity in the effect of sleep intervention can be expounded by variation in how
effective the strategy is in improving perceived sleep quantity.
2. Was there a published protocol for this review? If yes - please provide the reference
The article was published, approved and posted by Elsevier publishers under Sleep Medicine
Reviews in the year 2019. Below is the review reference.
Gee, B., Orchard, F., Clarke, E., Joy, A., Clarke, T., & Reynolds, S. (2019). The effect of non-
pharmacological sleep interventions on depression symptoms: A meta-analysis of
randomized controlled trials. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 43, 118-128.
DOI:10.1016/j.smrv.2018.09.004
3. What are the inclusion criteria for this review?
The inclusion criteria for trial interventions included any non-pharmacological strategy
that leads to sleep improvement in patients with depression as controlled by conditions that were
not designed to improve sleep. In addition, only articles that were in the English language and
measured the depression symptoms using a validated instrument were included. Articles that had
pharmacological interventions to improve sleep or a control group received any intervention to

Critical Appraisal Literature Review 3
improve sleep were excluded from the review. Furthermore, the review excluded all articles
with sleep interventions were designed to improve fatigue, sleep apnoea or parasomnias.
4. What types of studies were included?
Only randomized control trial studies were included in the review.
5. What databases/search engines were searched?
The databases that were used during the search included CINAHL, CENTRAL, Medline and
PsycINFO.
6. Were the search terms suitable for the purpose of this review?
The search terms were suitable for this review as they directly or closely related and addressed
the review topic accordingly. Such terms included sleep, insomnia, sleep treatment, sleep
disorders, help, support, hygiene, education, depression, and mood. Boolean terms OR, AND
were used together with search terms.
7. What search limits were applied?
The limiters included all articles published until 2018 with the oldest published in the year 1998
and the latest in 2017. The limiters also included clinical trials and English publications.
8. Does the PRISMA flowchart adequately describe how articles were identified,
screened, assessed for eligibility, appraised and selected for inclusion in the review?