Mapping the Intellectual Landscape of Maladaptive Daydreaming Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Web of Science-Indexed Publications (2009-2025).

Abstract

Empirical research on maladaptive daydreaming (MD), a clinically impairing form of compulsive immersive fantasy associated with attention dysregulation, emotional dysregulation and digital behavioural addictions, has expanded substantially over the past decade. Despite this growth, the intellectual structure, thematic evolution and collaborative networks of the MD literature indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) remain unmapped. This bibliometric study aimed to characterise the intellectual landscape of WoSCC-indexed MD research between 2009 and 2025. A total of 141 publications were analysed using bibliometrix (R), VOSviewer and Python-based network analyses. The corpus accumulated 2187 citations with a mean of 15.5 citations per document and a field h-index of 26. Israel, the United States and Italy were the most productive countries. Four thematic clusters emerged: core MD phenomenology and dissociation; neurodevelopmental and attentional correlates; emotional dysregulation and pandemic-related psychopathology and digital behavioural addictions. Thematic evolution revealed a shift from phenomenological description toward multidimensional clinical investigation with increasing neurodevelopmental integration. Persistent gaps include longitudinal studies, randomized controlled trials and neurobiological investigations. These findings clarify the structure, thematic evolution and collaborative landscape of the Web of Science-indexed literature on MD and identify underdeveloped areas for future empirical work.