Background & Aims
Fibromyalgia is characterized by chronic widespread pain and is commonly associated with symptoms such as fatigue, emotional distress, and sleep disturbances. Since the term primary fibrositis (later fibromyalgia) was initially coined in 1904, the diagnostic criteria, treatment recommendations, research methodology and our understanding of the pathophysiology and psychological underpinnings has changed dramatically. Moreover, there are substantial cultural and national variations in how fibromyalgia is diagnosed and treated, with different prevalence rates across countries.
We conducted a bibliometric study of research studies available on Web of Science to summarize trends in fibromyalgia research and how they have changed over time. We also aimed to explore the top productive countries in fibromyalgia research and to investigate differences among these countries.
Methods
Data on fibromyalgia research were collected from Web of Science using the search term “fibromyal*” (Title) on September 30, 2023. Inclusion criteria were (1) documents written in English; (2) document type as an article or review article. The collected documents were merged into one file with information including title, publication year, author keywords, keywords plus, and country from each paper. The keywords were then manually classified into one of the following groups representing thematic categories: Clinical Conditions and Symptoms, Psychological Factors and Impact, Physiological Mechanisms and Aspects, Epidemiology and Demographics, Treatment and Management, Methodology and Assessment, Questionnaires, and Unspecified. We then analyzed the keywords and visualized the data to illustrate temporal trends, clustering based on co-occurrence, and national differences in research output and prevalence of fibromyalgia.
Results
There has been a continuous increase in the number of documents on fibromyalgia from 1981 until today, with its highest relative document frequency compared to pain studies in 1998. USA had the highest total number of papers on fibromyalgia, while Turkey had the highest relative number of fibromyalgia papers relative to all research papers. Eastern Asian countries showed lower relative productivity and prevalence. The temporal analyses of keywords revealed a trend suggesting that Psychiatric and Affective Disorders are topics that show a more recent peak in popularity compared to other keywords of Clinical Conditions and Symptoms. For Treatment and Management, Psychological therapies and Complementary and Integrative Medicine has had an increase in popularity in recent years compared to Pharmacological treatment and Physical interventions.
Conclusions
Using a bibliometric approach, we presented an overview of trends in fibromyalgia research, elucidating how the pathophysiology, psychological underpinnings, clinical features, research methodology, and research methodology has developed from 1981 until today. We found a plethora of different patterns and trends in Fibromyalgia research, e.g. recent trends showing an increase in research focused on psychological interventions and complementary and integrative medicine, and an increase in research focus on Psychiatric and Affective Disorders.
References
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