A Bibliometric Analysis of Acupuncture Treatment of Tension-Type Headache from 2003 to 2022

Abstract

Background

Acupuncture therapy is a unique technology created by the working people in ancient China. It is popular all over the world for its safety, effectiveness and no side effects, especially for the treatment of pain syndrome, it can often have an immediate effect. Tension-type headache is one of them. At present, many literatures have reported that many countries in the world are using acupuncture to treat tension-type headache, but there is no quantitative analysis of the relevant literature on this field. Therefore, This study aims to evaluate the research hotspots and trends of acupuncture treatment of tension-type headache through a macro review of the literature from 2003 to 2022 by using CiteSpace V6.1.R6 (64-bit) Basic.

Methods

Relevant literatures on acupuncture treatment of tension-type headache from 2003 to 2022 were extracted from the web of science core collection database. CiteSpace was used to analyze the data of publications, authors, institutions, countries, keywords and cited references, cited authors, cited journals. Draw the cited network map and analyze the research hotspots and trends.

Results

A total of 231 publications were retrieved from 2003 to 2022. In the past 20 years, the annual number of publications has shown an overall growth trend, and the most active journals, countries, institutions, authors, cite references and keywords in the field of acupuncture treatment of tension-type headache were identified.

Conclusion

This study provides the status and trends of clinical research in the field of acupuncture therapy for tension-type headache in the past 20 years, which will help researchers understand the research hotspots in this field and provide new directions for further research.

Keywords:

• acupuncture therapy
• tension-type headache
• bibliometric analysis
• CiteSpace
• research trends

Data Sharing Statement

Raw data were obtained directly from the Web of Science Core Collections (WoSCC).

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Professor Chen Chaomei for inventing CiteSpace and using it for free.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National key R&D projects (2022YFC3500701), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81860877), and the Major Project Innovation Fund Project of Jiangxi Science and Technology Department (202021BBG73029), and I would like to express my gratitude here.