Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the current status and trends of acupuncture for depression in the last decade and provide new insights for researchers in future studies.Methods: The articles regarding acupuncture treatment for depression published between 2011 and 2020 were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection. We used CiteSpace to analyze data on publications, countries, institutions, cited journals, cited authors, cited references, keywords, and citation bursts about acupuncture and depression.Results: A total of 1,032 publications were obtained from 2011 to 2020. We identified the most prolific journals, countries, institutions, and authors in the field of acupuncture for depression in the last decade. The most prolific country and institutions were the People's Republic of China and KyungHee University, respectively. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine was the most prolific and cited journal. The author with the highest centrality was Zhangjin Zhang, and the author with the most publications was Park Hi-Joon. The keyword “cognitive behavioral therapy” was first for research developments with the highest citation burst. The five hot topics in acupuncture on depression were “acupuncture,” “depression,” “electro-acupuncture,” “quality of life,” and “anxiety.”Conclusions: The results from this bibliometric study provide insight into the research trends in acupuncture therapy for depression, and the current status and trends of the past decade, which may help researchers determine the current status, hotspots, and frontier trends in this field.
Highlights
Depression is a major disease burden in the world
All publications were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate 30 Thomson Place, 36T3 Boston, MA 02210) in this study on May 5, 2021
A total of 1,032 articles were extracted by searching the Web of Science Core Collection
Summary
Depression is a major disease burden in the world. The worldwide prevalence of the major depressive disorder is estimated at 4.7%, with an annual incidence rate of about 3% (Ferrari et al, 2013). Depression is an important factor in the quality of life and survival, accounting for about 50% of all psychiatric outpatients and 12% of all inpatients (Kuo et al, 2015). 5.8% of men and 9.5% of women experience depressive episodes in any year of their lifetime (Li et al, 2016). The WHO lists depression as the fourth leading cause of disability worldwide (Guo et al, 2019).
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