Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Nov 1:16:3655-3671.
doi: 10.2147/JPR.S427658. eCollection 2023.

Pain and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: A Bibliometric Analysis

Valentina-Fineta Chiriac  1   2 , Daniel-Corneliu Leucuța  3 , Daniela-Viorica Moșoiu  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Pain and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: A Bibliometric Analysis

Valentina-Fineta Chiriac et al. J Pain Res. .

Abstract

Context: Pain management is a constant struggle. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulation technique with proved efficacy in chronic pain.

Objective: The aim of the study is to provide a bibliometric perspective regarding articles on pain and tDCS. Having a visualized and systematically overview of publication trends, new research ideas could arise for clinicians.

Methods: Articles on pain and tDCS were retrieved from Web of Science database. Using the R software version 4.1.2 and the "biblioshiny" R package, a quantitative and statistical analysis was performed. Time trend, number of publications, journals and authors, author country and institution, as well as citations and references were visualized.

Results: A total of 554 publication fulfilled the criteria and were analyzed. The scientific production has been increasing over time with an annual growth of 17.1%. Brain Stimulation Journal and Journal of Pain are the leading journals regarding articles and citations. Fregni F. (83 articles) is the most prolific researcher with important authorship in the field. USA is the country with most authors involved in the topic (558 authors), whereas the leading institution is represented by Universidade Federal Rio Grande Do Sul (84 articles). Lefaucheur JP. article from 2017 has the maximum citations, while keywords in trend in the last three years are osteoarthritis and low back pain.

Conclusion: This is the first bibliometric study that reflects the trends of tDCS in the field of pain. Journals as well as authors are limited and clustered. However the number of articles as well as number of citations are constantly increasing, supporting the idea that this is an emerging topic. The information obtained could be an important practical basis for future pain management research.

Keywords: Web of Science; bibliometric analysis; chronic pain; neuromodulation; noninvasive electric brain stimulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the search and selection process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Annual scientific production.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Average article citations per year.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Cumulative occurrence of articles by source.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Source clustering.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Author’s scientific production over time.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Lotka’s law [In square brackets are the occasional authors that published only 1 article].
Figure 8
Figure 8
Authors’ collaboration network.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Map of country production.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Affiliation’s production over time.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Collaboration world map. [The color intensity is proportional to the number of publications].
Figure 12
Figure 12
Corresponding author’s country and international collaboration measure the international collaboration intensity of a country.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Historiograph. [Nodes – articles identified by the first author and year of publication, edge – a citation. The horizontal axis is the year of publication].
Figure 14
Figure 14
Trend topics [The size of the circle = term frequency. The gray bar = the first and third quartiles of the occurrence distribution].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Raja SN, Carr DB, Cohen M, et al. The revised international association for the study of pain definition of pain: concepts, challenges, and compromises. Pain. 2020;161(9):1976–1982. doi: 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001939 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Woolf CJ. What is this thing called pain? J Clin Invest. 2010;120(11):3742–3744. doi: 10.1172/JCI45178 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fregni F, El-Hagrassy MM, Pacheco-Barrios K, et al.; Neuromodulation Center Working Group. Evidence-based guidelines and secondary meta-analysis for the use of transcranial direct current stimulation in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2021;24(4):256–313. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyaa051 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Knotkova H, Nitsche MA, Bikson M, Woods AJ. Practical Guide to Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: Principles, Procedures and Applications. 1st ed. Springer; 2019.
    1. Nitsche MA, Paulus W. Excitability changes induced in the human motor cortex by weak transcranial direct current stimulation. J Physiol. 2000;527(Pt 3):633–639. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7793.2000.t01-1-00633.x - DOI - PMC - PubMed