To the best of our knowledge, our findings indicate for the first time that the objective approach for the development of search strategies is noninferior to the conceptual approach.

Our findings indicate that the objective approach applied by IQWiG for search strategy development yields higher sensitivity than and similar precision to a conceptual approach. The main advantage of the objective approach is that it produces consistent results across searches.

The available RCTs on stress-reduction techniques used for at least 24 weeks appeared to indicate a blood pressure-lowering effect in patients with essential hypertension, but this should be interpreted with caution because of major methodological limitations. A benefit of specific stress-reduction techniques in hypertensive patients remains unproven.

There is currently no suitable approach to conducting efficient systematic searches for epidemiologic publications in bibliographic databases. The filter by Larney et al. (2013) can be used for sensitive MEDLINE searches. No robust conclusions can be drawn on precise or optimized filters. Additional search approaches should be considered.