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. 2022 Nov 16:13:1047007.
doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1047007. eCollection 2022.

Brain-gut axis and psychiatric disorders: A perspective from bibliometric and visual analysis

Pan Chen  1   2 , Ling Zhang  3 , Yuan Feng  3 , Yu-Fei Liu  1 , Tong Leong Si  1 , Zhaohui Su  4   5 , Teris Cheung  6 , Gabor S Ungvari  7   8 , Chee H Ng  9 , Yu-Tao Xiang  1   2
Affiliations

Brain-gut axis and psychiatric disorders: A perspective from bibliometric and visual analysis

Pan Chen et al. Front Immunol. .

Abstract

Background: The Brain-Gut Axis, a bidirectional signaling pathway that connects the intestinal and central nervous systems, plays an important role in the development of psychiatric disorders. However, the overall research trends in this field are unclear. This study explored the patterns of research on the brain-gut axis and psychiatric disorders from a bibliometric perspective.

Methods: Relevant data were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, with search terms on psychiatric disorders and the brain-gut axis. R (version 4.2.0), VOSviewer (version 1.6.17), CiteSpace software, and the online bibliometric platform were used in the data analysis.

Results: A total of 2,298 articles published between 1993 and 2022 were identified, showing an increasing trend over time. China (1,859; 20.70%) was the country that contributed the most publications. The journal Nutrients (95; 4.13%) published the most publications. Cryan JF (153; H-index=73) and University College Cork (559; 22.54%) were the most influential author and the most productive institution, respectively. The high-frequency keywords were clustered into six themes, including neurodegenerative diseases, stress-related diseases, immune, brain behavior, depression, and probiotic-related topics; of which, depression (880; 2019), anxiety (207; 2018) and autism (191; 2019) were the most studied psychiatric disorders in the past 5 years. "Depressive symptom" (2019-2020) and "probiotic treatment" (2019-2020) were the main areas addressed in recent years.

Conclusion: Research on the brain-gut axis and psychiatric disorders has attracted increasing attention in the past decade, with most publications originating from high-income level countries. This study provides a useful perspective on understanding the research trends, key hot topics, and research gaps in this expanding field.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis; brain-gut axis; gut microbiota; hotspots; psychiatric disorders.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of data collection and study design.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Trends of publications on brain-gut axis and psychiatric disorders.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Collaborative research between countries on brain-gut axis and psychiatric disorders.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Map of collaboration networks of co-author analysis ((A) Network visualization map of authors; (B) Overlay visualization map of authors).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Analysis of the research hotspots on brain-gut axis and psychiatric disorders ((A) Network visualization map of keywords co-occurrence; (B) Overlay visualization map of keywords; (C) Top 30 keywords with the strongest citation bursts from 1993 to 2022).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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