Studies on Pain Associated with Anxiety or Depression in the Last 10 Years: A Bibliometric Analysis

Qianyuan Zhang; Haiju Sun; Yinuo Xin; Xiaoyu Li; Xiaomei Shao

doi:10.2147/JPR.S436500

Studies on Pain Associated with Anxiety or Depression in the Last 10 Years: A Bibliometric Analysis

J Pain Res. 2024 Jan 5:17:133-149. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S436500. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Qianyuan Zhang¹, Haiju Sun¹, Yinuo Xin¹, Xiaoyu Li¹, Xiaomei Shao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Acupuncture and Neurology of Zhejiang Province, Department of Neurobiology and Acupuncture Research, The Third Clinical Medical College, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310053, People's Republic of China.
² Key Laboratory for Research of Acupuncture Treatment and Transformation of Emotional Diseases, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310009, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of pain comorbid and anxiety/depression in clinical observations has been high, and the number of related publications has increased in recent years. Nevertheless, few studies have used bibliometric methods to analyze the scientific research on comorbid pain and depression/anxiety. The aim of this study was to systematically examine the trends in global scientific research on comorbid pain and depression/anxiety from 2012 to 2022.

Methods: Papers published between 2012 and 2022 were identified in the Web of Science database. Publications that examined comorbid pain and depression/anxiety were included. The language was limited to English. CiteSpace, Excel and VOSviewer were used to analyze the volume of publications, countries, institutions, authors, cocited authors, and keywords.

Results: A total of 30,290 papers met the inclusion criteria of the study. Using CiteSpace, VOSviewer and Excel, the results showed that the United States (10,614 publications), Harvard University (1195 publications), and Jensen, Mark P. (77 publications) were the most productive country, institution, and author, respectively. The hotspots and frontiers were "relationship between depression and pain", "gender differences in pain and depression/anxiety domains", "study of specific pain types with depression/anxiety", "treatment of pain combined with anxiety/depression", and "effects of COVID-19 on patients with pain combined with depression/anxiety".

Conclusion: These findings indicate a growing interest in the field of comorbid pain and depression/anxiety. The research has been broad and deep, but there is still much room for growth. Furthermore, there is a need for more mature global collaborative networks as well as more high-quality research results in the future.

Keywords: CiteSpace; VOSviewer; anxiety; bibliometric analysis; depression; pain.

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: 82074518; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation: 2022M722853; Postgraduate Science Foundation of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University: 2022YKJ08.