Global Trend in the Research and Development of Acupuncture Treatment on Parkinson's Disease From 2000 to 2021: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

BackgroundAcupuncture has been widely used in the treatment of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in the world. Despite we have an in-depth understanding of acupuncture in this field over the past years, there is no available literature on bibliometric analysis on the development of acupuncture on PD. This study was designed to explore the global trend in the research of acupuncture on PD in the recent 20 years by the software CiteSpace (5.8.R3) and VOSviewer (1.6.14).MethodsPublications regarding acupuncture therapy for PD from 2000 to 2021 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database. CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used to analyze the number of publications, the contribution of countries, institutions, journals, authors, references, and keywords.ResultsA total of 217 studies were extracted from the database. The outputs of the publications in this field showed an upward trend during the past two decades. The country and institutions with the most publications in this field are China, South Korea, and the USA. They were the main contributors to the research. Kyung Hee University and Capital Medical University were the two most productive organizations. Hi-Joon Park had made the greatest contributions to the field. Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine was the most popular journals in this field. “Electroacupuncture” and “Bee venom acupuncture” were emerging research hotspots.ConclusionThe research on acupuncture on PD is potential. Authors from different countries/regions and organizations need to remove the language and academic barriers to enhance global cooperation and communications. Scholars in this field need to publish their research findings in high-quality journals to gain more attention worldwide. This study indicated that the mechanism leading to the non-motor symptoms of PD, the establishment of appropriate models that fully reflects the non-motor features of human PD, and the efficacy and safety of promising therapies for patients with PD will remain research frontiers in the future.

Parkinson's disease constipation effect of electroacupuncture at ST25 through colonic motility and enteric neuropathology

“…In terms of mechanistic studies, the absence of dopaminergic neurons in the nigrostriatal pathway is the most common pathological factor in PD. Acupuncture can mitigate brain dopaminergic neuronal damage through various pathways, such as apoptotic pathway, autophagic pathway, oxidative stress-related pathway, survival pathway, and neurotransmitter and its receptor and neurotrophic factor expression, thereby achieving neuroprotective mechanisms ( 15 , 28 , 29 ). In recent years, the gut–brain axis has offered a potential entry point for the treatment of PD as the gut–brain axis theory proposes a close connection between the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system ( 47 ).…”

“…Although existing systematic evaluations and meta-analyses have shown conflicting results for acupuncture for PD constipation due to significant heterogeneity and small sample sizes (20)(21)(22)(23)(24), the fact that acupuncture was considered an effective or safe treatment for functional constipation and gastrointestinal disorders (25,26) in some randomized trials. Available evidence suggests that acupuncture treatment has the potential to alleviate motor and NMS of PD, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear (27)(28)(29). The neuroprotective effects of acupuncture on neurodegenerative lesions in animal models of PD are mainly focused on cerebral neurons (30)(31)(32), and no studies have yet reported the effects of acupuncture on the ENS.…”

Dynamic structures and emerging trends in the management of major trauma: A bibliometric analysis of publications between 2012 and 2021

“…Keyword analysis helps identify research hotspots and predicts developing trends in the field ( 57 ). As indicated in Figures 8B , 9 , the following keywords may indicate the recent focus and research hotspots: “trauma management,” “neurocritical care,” “injury severity,” and “emergency medical service.”…”

Electroacupuncture Modulates 5-HT4R-Mediated cAMP/PKA Signaling to Improve Intestinal Motility Disorders in a Thy1-αSyn Parkinson’s Mouse Model

“…Similar to natural medicines, acupuncture has fewer side effects and is therefore more suitable for longterm treatment of PD than synthetic drugs [67]. Acupuncture is currently used as a complementary and alternative therapy for PD in many countries [68][69][70][71]. Studies have shown that acupuncture significantly improves motor symptoms and NMSs in PD [37][38][39][72][73][74].…”