Research status, hotspots, and implications of seasonal affective disorder: A bibliometric analysis based on CiteSpace and VOSviewer

Abstract

The objective was to determine the research status and hotspots of seasonal affective disorders (SAD) based on bibliometric tools, which will contribute to the further research in this field. We used bibliometric tools CiteSpace and VOSviewer to conduct visual quantitative analysis on 465 SAD literatures in the Web of Science core database from 2008 to 2023 from multiple perspectives such as collaboration network, keywords, and literature citations. At the same time, we used Microsoft Word to make relevant tables. The publication of SAD-related literature has been on the rise in the past 15 years, countries with high production of SAD literature are mainly concentrated in the United States, Austria, and Canada, and certain cooperative relationships have been established between various institutions and scholars. Research keywords in our study are mainly limited to pathogenesis (“Photoperiod,” “exposure,” “winter,” “serotonin transporter,” and “creb”) and treatment measures (“light therapy” and “melatonin”). In recent years, literature research hotspots mainly focus on the treatment of SAD with light therapy, the application of exogenous drugs, the biological clock mechanism of SAD pathogenesis, the relationship between SAD and inflammation, etc. The correlation between SAD and sleepiness and alternative treatments to light therapy may be future research hotspots. The research results reveal the future research focus of SAD. There is a considerable interest in the photoperiodic pathogenesis of SAD, light therapy and its alternative therapies, and there is still hope for further exploration. Substantial research into evidence-based prevention as well as treatment strategies is necessary to improve outcomes.