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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) associated with anxiety or depression is ubiquitous in clinical practice, and multiple related articles have been published. However, studies that utilize bibliometric analyses to address this topic are rare. In our study, we aimed to reveal research trends in IBS with anxiety or depression. Publications on IBS in relation to anxiety or depression in the last 20 years were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). CiteSpace software (5.8.R3) and GraphPad Prism 8 were used to perform bibliometric analysis of authors, countries, institutions, journals, keywords, and references involved in this topic. A total of 2,562 publications from 716 academic journals were included in this study. The majority of publications (n = 833, 32.51%) were from the USA, and the University of California, Los Angeles, contributed the most publications (n = 97, 3.79%). Active cooperations among countries and institutions were observed. Neurogastroenterology and Motility [impact factor (IF) 2020 = 3.598] published the most papers (170 publications, 6.64%), followed by Alimentary Pharmacology Therapeutics (IF 2020 = 8.171; 88 publications; 3.44%). The literatures related to IBS and anxiety or depression were primarily published in journals related to medicine/medical/clinical, neurology/sports/ophthalmology, and molecular/biology/immunology. Cryan JF and Drossman DA, with the largest number of articles (84 publications) and citations (917 citations), respectively, were considered as the most influential authors in this field. A total of 336 co-cited references were divided into 17 clusters, and #1 fecal microbiota transplantation contained most of the documents published in recent years. Moreover, the keyword “psychosocial factor” had the largest burst strength of 13.52, followed by the keyword “gut microbiota” with a burst strength of 11.71. This study shows the research performance of IBS related to anxiety or depression from 2002 to 2021 and helps researchers master the trend in this field, which should receive more attention.

Background Fibromyalgia is a rheumatic disease with no specific laboratory markers and is insensitive to hormonal drugs and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs commonly used to treat rheumatism. Guidelines recommend that non-pharmacological therapy should be the first-line treatment for fibromyalgia. Since the publication of the first diagnostic criteria for fibromyalgia in 1990, studies on acupuncture for fibromyalgia have been reported periodically. This study aims to explore the intellectual landscape of acupuncture for fibromyalgia since 1990, and to identify research trends and fronts in this field. Methods The Web of Science Core Collection Database was searched for publications on acupuncture for fibromyalgia from 1990 to 2022. VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to analyze the annual publication, countries, institutions, authors and cited authors, journals and cited journals, references and keywords. Results A total of 280 publications were retrieved, and the number of publications showed an overall upward trend. The United States was the most productive country. China Medical University was the institution with the most publications. Lin Yi-wen was the most prolific author, while Wolfe was the most cited author. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine was the journal in which most of the research was published, while Pain was the most cited journal. An article by Wolfe (1990) had the most citations, but an article by Crofford (2001) had the highest centrality. The four most frequently used keywords in the included articles were mechanism, spinal cord, activation and sensitivity. Conclusion Acupuncture can effectively relieve pain in patients with fibromyalgia and improve accompanying symptoms such as anxiety and depression. However, the design of clinical trials still needs to be optimized to better verify the efficacy of acupuncture on various clinical symptoms of fibromyalgia. Exploring the central analgesic mechanism of acupuncture on fibromyalgia is also the focus research direction now and future.

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