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Review
. 2022 Aug 20:15:2465-2479.
doi: 10.2147/JPR.S374564. eCollection 2022.

Research Trends of Moxibustion Therapy for Pain Treatment Over the Past Decade: A Bibliometric Analysis

Yunfan Xia  1 , Ruohan Sun  1 , Rongrong Li  1 , Leilei Ren  1 , Yiyi Wang  1 , Jianqiao Fang  2
Affiliations
Review

Research Trends of Moxibustion Therapy for Pain Treatment Over the Past Decade: A Bibliometric Analysis

Yunfan Xia et al. J Pain Res. .

Abstract

Background: Accumulate evidence indicated that moxibustion has a positive effect on pain treatment. However, the bibliometric analysis of moxibustion on pain remains uncertain. Herein, this study aimed to explore the current hotspots and the research trends over the past decade to bring a great panorama in this field.

Methods: Publications were retrieved from the database Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2021. CiteSpace and Excel were applied to analyze the volume of publications, journals, cited journals, dual-map analysis, countries, institutes, authors, references, and keywords with citation bursts.

Results: A total of 360 publications were retrieved from 2012 to 2021. The annual number of publications increased steadily with some fluctuations over the past 10 years. "The Evid Based Complement Alternat Med" and "the Gut" were the top-cited journals in frequency and centrality. China and Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were the most prolific country and institutions, respectively. Among authors, Huangan Wu was the most active author with the highest cited frequency. Jun Xiong, Fanrong Liang and Guixing Xu held the articles with higher centrality. In the ranking of frequency and centrality in cited references, the top one was the article published by Shamseer L and Deng HY, respectively. "Acupuncture" was the keyword with the highest frequency. Pain disease (including rheumatoid arthritis, knee osteoarthritis, herpes zoster), research method (including randomized controlled trial), and risk (including quality of life, economic burden, physical and psychological problems) were the hotspots and frontier trends in this field.

Conclusion: This bibliometric study reveals the current status and research trend in the treatment of pain with moxibustion. The formulation with bibliometric analysis further elicits hot spots and frontier issues in this field.

Keywords: CiteSpace; bibliometric analysis; moxibustion; pain.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The number of moxibustion therapy for pain treatment publications from 2012 to 2021.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cited journal maps related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from 2012 to 2021.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A dual-map overlay of journals related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from 2012 to 2021.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A country cooperation map related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from 2012 to 2021.
Figure 5
Figure 5
An institution cooperation map related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from 2012 to 2021.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Map of cited author related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from 2012 to 2021.
Figure 7
Figure 7
(A) Map of cited references related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from 2012 to 2021. (B) The top 10 clusters of cited reference related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from 2012 to 2021.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Map of keywords related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from 2012 to 2021.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts. The red color represents the keyword was cited in high frequency and the green color represents in low frequency.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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