Karolina Domingues, Nuno Henrique Franco, Isilda Rodrigues, George Stilwell, Manuel Magalhães-Sant'Ana
{"title":"Bibliometric trend analysis of non-conventional (alternative) therapies in veterinary research.","authors":"Karolina Domingues, Nuno Henrique Franco, Isilda Rodrigues, George Stilwell, Manuel Magalhães-Sant'Ana","doi":"10.1080/01652176.2022.2142318","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p><b>Background:</b> There is an increased interest in Non-Conventional Therapies (NCTs), often referred to as complementary and alternative medicines, in veterinary clinical practice.<b>Aim:</b> To map the bibliometric outputs of NCTs in veterinary medicine, and identify which are most prevalent, and the extent to which their publishing has increased.<b>Methods:</b> Text mining algorithms were applied to detect 17 NCTs-related terms (<i>acupuncture</i>, <i>ayurveda/ayurvedic</i>, <i>traditional Chinese medicine</i>, <i>traditional medicine, chiropractic</i>, <i>electroacupuncture</i>, <i>essential oil</i>, <i>plant extract, ethnopharmacology</i>, <i>herbal medicine</i>, <i>homeopathy</i>, <i>low-level laser therapy</i>, <i>medicinal plant, natural product</i>, <i>osteopathy</i>, <i>phytotherapy</i>, and <i>massage</i>) in the title, abstract or keywords of all retrievable literature until 2020 under the PubMed MeSH term 'veterinary' (<i>N</i> = 377 556). Point prevalence, incidence by decade and cumulative incidence were calculated.<b>Results:</b> Bibliometric trend analysis revealed an overall increase in NCTs-related terms over the last 20 years, with a substantial growth of studies mentioning <i>plant extracts</i>, <i>essential oils</i> and <i>medicinal plants. Traditional Chinese medicine</i>, <i>herbal medicine</i> and <i>natural product</i> have also increased in the same period, although their numbers remain low. Conversely, reference to <i>acupuncture</i> has decreased in the last decade when compared with the previous decade, whereas references to <i>homeopathy</i>, <i>electroacupuncture</i>, <i>osteopathy</i> and <i>chiropractic</i> remained scarce, suggesting that their use in veterinary clinical practice may not be based on published evidence.<b>Conclusion:</b> Further reviews to explore this issue are warranted, differentiating secondary from primary literature, and assessing relevance and methodological quality of individual studies, following the principles of evidence-based veterinary medicine.</p>","PeriodicalId":7,"journal":{"name":"ACS Applied Polymer Materials","volume":" ","pages":"192-198"},"PeriodicalIF":4.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9662055/pdf/","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ACS Applied Polymer Materials","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01652176.2022.2142318","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"MATERIALS SCIENCE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Background: There is an increased interest in Non-Conventional Therapies (NCTs), often referred to as complementary and alternative medicines, in veterinary clinical practice.Aim: To map the bibliometric outputs of NCTs in veterinary medicine, and identify which are most prevalent, and the extent to which their publishing has increased.Methods: Text mining algorithms were applied to detect 17 NCTs-related terms (acupuncture, ayurveda/ayurvedic, traditional Chinese medicine, traditional medicine, chiropractic, electroacupuncture, essential oil, plant extract, ethnopharmacology, herbal medicine, homeopathy, low-level laser therapy, medicinal plant, natural product, osteopathy, phytotherapy, and massage) in the title, abstract or keywords of all retrievable literature until 2020 under the PubMed MeSH term 'veterinary' (N = 377 556). Point prevalence, incidence by decade and cumulative incidence were calculated.Results: Bibliometric trend analysis revealed an overall increase in NCTs-related terms over the last 20 years, with a substantial growth of studies mentioning plant extracts, essential oils and medicinal plants. Traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine and natural product have also increased in the same period, although their numbers remain low. Conversely, reference to acupuncture has decreased in the last decade when compared with the previous decade, whereas references to homeopathy, electroacupuncture, osteopathy and chiropractic remained scarce, suggesting that their use in veterinary clinical practice may not be based on published evidence.Conclusion: Further reviews to explore this issue are warranted, differentiating secondary from primary literature, and assessing relevance and methodological quality of individual studies, following the principles of evidence-based veterinary medicine.
期刊介绍:
ACS Applied Polymer Materials is an interdisciplinary journal publishing original research covering all aspects of engineering, chemistry, physics, and biology relevant to applications of polymers.
The journal is devoted to reports of new and original experimental and theoretical research of an applied nature that integrates fundamental knowledge in the areas of materials, engineering, physics, bioscience, polymer science and chemistry into important polymer applications. The journal is specifically interested in work that addresses relationships among structure, processing, morphology, chemistry, properties, and function as well as work that provide insights into mechanisms critical to the performance of the polymer for applications.