Wu Zhulin, Tan Wanjun, Li Siyi, Zhang Weiqing, Lai Mingbo, Luo Weijun
Department of TCM, People's Hospital of Longhua, Shenzhen, China.
The Eighth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, China.
Front Neurol. 2025 Jan 17;15:1498576. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1498576. eCollection 2024.
Acupoint-related interventions are the widely utilized modalities in traditional Chinese medicine for the alleviation of pain. This study aims to identify research hotspots and trends by conducting a bibliometric analysis of the relevant literature on acupoint and pain, thereby elucidating future research directions in this field.
A comprehensive search was conducted on PubMed for literature pertaining to acupoint and pain from January 2010 to August 2024. Subsequent bibliometric analyses, encompassing statistical evaluation of bibliographic data, keyword cluster analysis, and co-occurrence analysis, were conducted utilizing the Medpulse database and the Bibliometrix R-package.
A total of 742 articles from 179 journals were included in the analysis, with the majority focusing on complementary and alternative medicine or comprehensive research. The number of publications in this field has shown a consistent annual increase, involving contributions from 19 different countries of corresponding authors. China had the greatest contribution with 407 articles followed by Korea with 25 articles. The leading institutions in terms of publication volume are Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, and Kyung Hee University. The topics covered in these articles include acupuncture, transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS), randomized controlled trials, analgesia, zusanli (st36), systematic review, and anxiety, among others. The main cluster themes are intervention methods for various acupoints and the assessment of their efficacy.
The bibliometric analysis has identified the intervention methods of acupoints and the evaluation of their efficacy in pain management as emerging research focal points. Additionally, anxiety is anticipated to emerge as a future research direction within this domain.
穴位相关干预是中医广泛应用的缓解疼痛的方法。本研究旨在通过对穴位与疼痛相关文献进行文献计量分析，确定研究热点和趋势，从而阐明该领域未来的研究方向。
在PubMed上全面检索2010年1月至2024年8月期间与穴位和疼痛相关的文献。随后利用Medpulse数据库和Bibliometrix R包进行文献计量分析，包括文献数据的统计评估、关键词聚类分析和共现分析。
分析共纳入179种期刊的742篇文章，其中大部分集中在补充替代医学或综合研究。该领域的出版物数量呈逐年稳步增长，涉及来自19个不同国家的通讯作者。中国贡献最大，有407篇文章，其次是韩国，有25篇文章。发表量领先的机构是成都中医药大学、中国医科大学和庆熙大学。这些文章涵盖的主题包括针灸、经皮穴位电刺激（TEAS）、随机对照试验、镇痛、足三里（ST36）、系统评价和焦虑等。主要聚类主题是各种穴位的干预方法及其疗效评估。
文献计量分析确定了穴位的干预方法及其在疼痛管理中的疗效评估为新兴研究重点。此外，焦虑预计将成为该领域未来的研究方向。
