Global Scientific Trends on Anxiety Disorders in the Early Twenty-First Century: A Data-Driven Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Objective: Interest in the study of anxiety disorders is growing rapidly. However, there is still a lack of comprehensive bibliometrics research in measuring and analyzing global scientific publications. The aim of this article is to review the current research status and trends of anxiety disorders worldwide through bibliometrics and to provide reliable support for future in-depth research.

Methods: In this bibliometric study, we utilized VOSviewer to evaluate the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) publications and to build visualizing maps to analyze the research progress on this topic between January 1, 2000, and August 7, 2024.

Results: Up to August 7, 2024, the study included a total of 67,386 English original articles and review articles published in 4054 journals by 206,496 authors from 164 countries/regions. The United States was a leader in articles, researchers, and institutions in the field of anxiety disorders. Using cluster analysis, the keywords were divided into five major clusters: (1) etiology and pathogenesis, (2) clinical classification and interventions, (3) comorbidity, (4) anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and specific groups, and (5) anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.

Conclusion: Molecular and neural circuit mechanisms, adolescent psychological problems, objective indicators of diagnosis and classification, and technology-assisted therapy are still the focus of future research. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of anxiety disorder research, which may help physicians, researchers, and local authorities and community health staff to more fully understand trends and influence in the field and highlight under-researched areas, which could be the basis for future research.