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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Comprehensive bibliometric analysis of transcranial magnetic stimulation-based depression treatment from 2003 to 2022: Research hotspots and trends
Zheng-Yu Li, Yu-Wei Zhang, Hao-Ran Yang, Yu-Qing Ren, Hong-Jin Wu, Meng-Yun Zhang, Song Zhang, Ying-Fu Jiao, Wei-Feng Yu, Jie Xiao, Po Gao, Heng Yang
Zheng-Yu Li, Yu-Wei Zhang, Hong-Jin Wu, Meng-Yun Zhang, Heng Yang, Department of Anesthesiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230061, Anhui Province, China
Zheng-Yu Li, Yu-Qing Ren, Song Zhang, Ying-Fu Jiao, Wei-Feng Yu, Jie Xiao, Po Gao, Department of Anesthesiology, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200127, China
Zheng-Yu Li, Yu-Qing Ren, Song Zhang, Ying-Fu Jiao, Wei-Feng Yu, Jie Xiao, Po Gao, Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology (Shanghai Jiao Tong University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai 200127, China
Hao-Ran Yang, School of Educational Sciences, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 400030, China
Co-first authors: Zheng-Yu Li and Yu-Wei Zhang.
Co-corresponding authors: Po Gao and Heng Yang.
Author contributions: Yang H, Gao P and Xiao J conceptualized and designed the study; Li ZY, Zhang YW, Yang HR and Ren YQ screened the articles, wrote the original manuscript, and performed the CiteSpace and VOSviewer analysis; Yang H, Gao P, Xiao J and Li ZY revised the manuscript; Zhang MY, Wu HJ, Zhang S, Jiao YF and Yu WF critically edited the manuscript; All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 82270916, No. 81800748 and No. 82371478; and the Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University Basic and Clinical Collaborative Research Enhancement Program Cultivation Special Funding Project, No. 2022sfy009.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Heng Yang, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 390 Huaihe Road, Luyang District, Hefei 230061, Anhui Province, China.
yangh999@yeah.net
Received: December 26, 2024
Revised: February 3, 2025
Accepted: February 25, 2025
Published online: April 19, 2025
Processing time: 89 Days and 18.3 Hours
BACKGROUND
Depression has become a global public health problem. In recent years, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has gained considerable attention as a non-invasive treatment for depression.
AIM
To investigate the research hotspots and trends in the field of TMS-based depression treatment from a bibliometric perspective.
METHODS
Using the Web of Science Core Collection, articles published between 2003 and 2022 on TMS-based depression treatment were retrieved from the science citation index expanded. The publication trends and research hotspots were analyzed using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the bibliometric online analysis platform. Regression analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel 2021 to predict publication growth trends.
RESULTS
We identified a total of 702 articles on TMS-based depression treatment with a predominance of clinical studies. Analysis of collaborative networks showed that the United States, the University of Toronto, and Daskalakis ZJ were identified as the most impactful country, institution, and researcher, respectively. In keyword burst analysis, it was found that theta burst stimulation (TBS), functional connectivity, and frequency were the most recent research hotspots.
CONCLUSION
TMS provides a novel therapeutic option for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Neuroimaging technology enables more precise TMS treatment, while the novel TMS modality, TBS, enhances both therapeutic efficacy and patient experience in TMS-based depression treatment. The integration of neuroimaging techniques with TBS represents a promising research direction for advancing TMS-based depression treatment. This study presents systematic information and recommendations to guide future research on TMS-based depression treatment.
Core Tip: This is the first bibliometric analysis of research relating to transcranial magnetic stimulation-based depression treatment in the past decade. Between 2003 and 2022, the United States was the leading country, in both the number of outputs and international collaborations. The University of Toronto and Daskalakis ZJ were the most productive institution and author, respectively. Theta burst stimulation and functional connectivity are current research hotspots.
