Background
The pathways and mechanisms underlying the associations between the gut microbiome and the brain are collectively known as the microbiome-gut-brain axis (MGBA). Depression is a common and frequent psychological and psychiatric disease. The interactions comprising the MGBA may play a role in the pathogenesis of depression. Nevertheless, the general aspects of the links between the MGBA and depression have not been systematically investigated through bibliometric analysis.
Methods
Publications from 1994 to 2022, focusing on the links between the MGBA and depression, were downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection. HistCite, VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and the Bibliometrix Package and were used for bibliometric analysis and visualization. The main analyses we performed included collaboration network analysis, co-citation analysis, co-occurrence analysis, and citation burst detection.
Results
A total of 829 publications related to the relationship between the MGBA and depression were identified. The number of such publications has been rapidly growing since 2014. The People's Republic of China, University College Cork, and John F. Cryan were the most influential country, institute, and scholar, respectively. BRAIN BEHAV IMMUN and NUTRIENTS were the most productive and co-cited journals. Five hot topics in research linking the MGBA with depression were depression, gut microbiota, gut-brain axis, microbiota, and anxiety. Five frontier topics in the field were cytokine, maternal separation, neuroinflammation, probiotics, and vagus. The most representative and symbolic reference with the highest co-citation number was an article by Bravo J. A. et al. (2011).
Conclusions
These results provide an instructive perspective for research on the relationship between the MGBA and depression, and a timely review and analysis of research hotspots and research trends, which will promote the development of this field. Future research will focus on understanding the underlying mechanism of action of the MGBA on depression, and on elucidating microbial-based interventions and treatment strategies for depression.