Managing depression with complementary and alternative medicine therapies: a scientometric analysis and visualization of research activities

Fei-Yi Zhao; Peijie Xu; Zhen Zheng; Russell Conduit; Yan Xu; Li-Ping Yue; Hui-Ru Wang; Yan-Mei Wang; Yuan-Xin Li; Chun-Yan Li; Wen-Jing Zhang; Qiang-Qiang Fu; Gerard A Kennedy

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1288346

Managing depression with complementary and alternative medicine therapies: a scientometric analysis and visualization of research activities

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Nov 15:14:1288346. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1288346. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Fei-Yi Zhao^#^{1

2}, Peijie Xu^#³, Zhen Zheng^#⁴, Russell Conduit^#⁴, Yan Xu^#¹, Li-Ping Yue^#¹, Hui-Ru Wang^#², Yan-Mei Wang^#², Yuan-Xin Li^#², Chun-Yan Li^#², Wen-Jing Zhang^#², Qiang-Qiang Fu^#⁵, Gerard A Kennedy^#^{4

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nursing, School of International Medical Technology, Shanghai Sanda University, Shanghai, China.
² Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
³ School of Computing Technologies, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
⁴ School of Health and Biomedical Sciences, RMIT University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia.
⁵ Yangpu Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Institute of Health and Wellbeing, Federation University, Mount Helen, VIC, Australia.
⁷ Institute for Breathing and Sleep, Austin Health, Heidelberg, VIC, Australia.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) interventions may prove to be an attractive option for the treatment of depression. The aim of this scientometric analysis is to determine the global scientific output of research regarding managing depression with CAM and identify the hotspots and frontiers within this theme.

Methods: Publications regarding the utilization of CAM for treating depression were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection from 1993 to 2022, and analyzed and visualized by Bibliometrix R-package, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace.

Results: A total of 1,710 publications were acquired. The number of annual publications showed an overall rapid upward trend, with the figure peaking at 179 in 2021. The USA was the leading research center. Totally 2,323 distinct institutions involving 7,638 scholars contributed to the research theme. However, most of the cooperation was limited to within the same country, institution or research team. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine was the most productive periodical. The CAM therapies of most interest to researchers were acupuncture and body-mind techniques, such as yoga, meditation and mindfulness. Systematic review and meta-analysis are commonly used methods. "Inflammation," "rating scale" and "psychological stress" were identified as the most studied trend topics recently.

Conclusion: Managing depression with evidence-based CAM treatment is gaining attention globally. Body-mind techniques and acupuncture are growing research hotspots or emerging trending topics. Future studies are predicted to potentially investigate the possible mechanisms of action underlying CAM treatments in reducing depression in terms of modulation of psychological stress and inflammation levels. Cross-countries/institutes/team research collaborations should be encouraged and further enhanced.

Keywords: Citespace; VOSviewer; bibliometrics; complementary and alternative medicine; depression; depressive disorders; scientometrics; visualization.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Shanghai Key Laboratory for Pharmaceutical Metabolite Research Project [SHZYDX2023-01] and University’s scientific research project, Shanghai Sanda University [2021zz02-yj] to F-YZ; National key R&D Program of China [2021YFC2501500] to W-JZ; Future Plan for Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance and Development of Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine [WLJH2021ZY-ZYY002] to H-RW; and Construction of Non-pharmacological TCM Treatment of Insomnia Center, Shanghai Municipal Health Commission [ZY(2021–2023)-0204–06] to Y-MW.