Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy on Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome from 2000 to 2022: A Bibliometric Analysis

Figures & data

Table 1 The Topic Search Query

Set	Results	Search Query
#1	29,725	TS=(Chronic pelvic Pain) OR (Pelvic Pain in Endometriosis) OR (Pelvic Congestion Syndrome) OR (chronic prostatitis) OR (genito-pelvic pain) OR (Chronic Prostatitis with Chronic pelvic Pain Syndrome) OR (Chronic pelvic Pain Syndrome) OR (Myofascial Pelvic Pain) OR (endometriosis) OR (Chronic pelvic inflammatory disease) OR (Pelvic inflammatory disease) Indexes=Web of Science, Timespan=2000–2022
#2	19,792	TS=(Acupuncture) OR (Acupuncture Therapy) OR (Acupuncture Treatments) OR (Acupuncture Points) OR (Manual Acupuncture) OR (Needle Acupuncture) OR (body acupuncture) OR (Acupuncture, Ear) OR (Acupuncture Analgesia) OR (Auricular Acupuncture) OR (Electroacupuncture) OR (electro-acupuncture) OR (Warm Acupuncture) OR (Moxibustion) Indexes=Web of Science, Timespan=2000–2022
#3	173	#1 AND #2

Figure 1 The annual number of publications on acupuncture treatment for CPPS between 2000 to 2022.

Figure 2 Type of publications on acupuncture treatment for CPPS between 2000 to 2022.

Table 2 Top 10 Scholarly Journals Related to Acupuncture on CPPS

Rank	Publications	Journal	IF (2022)	Rank	Publications	Journal	IF (2022)
1	18	Medicine	1.6000	6	5	Urology	2.1001
2	8	Evid-Based Compl Alt	2.6498	7	4	Acupuncture Electro	0.3000
3	6	J Altern Complem Med	2.6002	8	4	Cochrane Db Syst Rev	8.4001
4	6	J Urology	6.6002	9	3	BMC Complem Altern M	4.7824
5	5	Acupunct Med	2.5000	10	3	Chin J Integr Med	2.8997

Table 3 Top 10 Cited Journals and Centrality Related to Acupuncture Therapy on CPPS

Rank	Cited Journal	Frequency	Rank	Cited Journal	Centrality
1	J Urology	76	1	Acupunct Med	0.33
2	Urology	68	2	BMJ	0.29
3	Cochrane Db Syst Rev	63	3	Asian J Androl	0.25
4	Pain	59	4	Brit J Urol	0.25
5	Jama-J Am Med Assoc	55	5	Altern Ther Health M	0.25
6	J Altern Complem Med	54	6	Zhen Ci Yan Jiu	0.24
7	Obstet Gynecol	54	7	BMJ-Brit Med J	0.21
8	BMJ-Brit Med J	51	8	Am J Obstet Gynecol	0.21
9	Acupunct Med	47	9	Acta Obstet Gyn Scan	0.14
10	Bju Int	46	10	Eur Urol Suppl	0.14

Figure 3 Cited journal map related to acupuncture treatment on CPPS research from 2000 to 2022. The nodes in the map represent journals, and the lines between the nodes mean co-citation relationships. The different colors of the nodes represent the different years. The larger the node area, the greater the number of cocitations. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the publications.

Figure 4 Dual-map overlay of journals related to Acupuncture on CPPS. In the map, the left side is the distribution of the cite journal where the literature is located, representing the main discipline of the research; the right side is the distribution of the cited journal where the literature is located, which represents which disciplines are mainly cited.

Figure 5 Geographical distribution of acupuncture on CPPS. The lines with the same color in the figure represent the closeness of the cooperative relationship between the connected countries, while the size of the circles indicates the magnitude of the country’s influence.

Table 4 Top 10 Publications and Centrality of Countries/Region Related to Acupuncture on CPPS

Rank	Publications	Countries	Rank	Centrality	Countries
1	67	Peoples R China	1	0.51	Peoples R China
2	46	USA	2	0.50	USA
3	14	Germany	3	0.32	England
4	10	South Korea	4	0.27	Germany
5	8	Turkey	5	0.26	South Korea
6	7	Brazil	6	0.05	Norway
7	5	Austria	7	0.05	Argentina
8	4	Taiwan	8	0.00	Turkey
9	4	England	9	0.00	Brazil
10	4	Norway	10	0.00	Austria

Table 5 Top 10 Publications and Centrality of Institutions Related to Acupuncture on CPPS

Rank	Publications	Institutions	Rank	Centrality	Institutions
1	14	Beijing University of Chinese Medicine	1	0.09	Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine
2	11	Harvard University	2	0.07	Massachusetts General Hospital
3	11	Guang’ anmen Hospital	3	0.07	Guangzhou Medical University
4	11	China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences	4	0.05	Harvard University
5	10	Harvard Medical School	5	0.04	China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences
6	6	Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine	6	0.03	Harvard Medical School
7	6	Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Med	7	0.03	Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medic
8	5	Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE)	8	0.03	Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
9	4	Technical University of Munich	9	0.02	Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
10	4	Massachusetts General Hospital	10	0.02	Guang’ anmen Hospital14

Figure 6 Map of institutions researching acupuncture on CPPS research from 2000 to 2022. The nodes in the map represent institutions, and the lines between the nodes represent collaborative relationships. The different colors in the nodes represent the different years, and the larger the node area, the larger the number of publications.

Table 6 Top 10 Prolific Authors Related to Acupuncture on CPPS

Rank	Publications	Author	Rank	Publications	Author
1	7	Liu, Zhishun	6	4	Krieger, John N
2	5	Qin, Zongshi	7	4	Liong, Men Long
3	5	Wu, Jiani	8	4	Cheng, Kai
4	5	Xu, Chang	9	3	Beissner, Florian
5	5	Zhou, Jing	10	3	Meissner, Karin

Figure 7 Map of authors related to acupuncture on CPPS research from 2000 to 2022. The nodes represent authors, and the lines between the nodes represent the collaborative relationships. The different colors of the nodes represent the different years. The larger the node area, the greater the number of publications.

Table 7 Top 10 Frequency and Centrality of Cited Authors Related to Acupuncture on CPPS

Rank	Frequency	Author	Rank	Centrality	Author
1	43	Nickel JC	1	0.38	Armour M
2	42	Lee SWH	2	0.33	Brown J
3	29	Krieger JN	3	0.23	Liu BP
4	27	Qin ZS	4	0.23	Wayne PM
5	27	Lee SH	5	0.20	Siegel S
6	22	Rees J	6	0.19	Litwin MS
7	22	Sahin S	7	0.18	Fall M
8	20	Litwin MS	8	0.17	Nickel JC
9	18	Shoskes DA	9	0.16	Anderson RU
10	17	Lee Sang-Hun	10	0.15	Lee SWH

Figure 8 Map of cited authors related to acupuncture on CPPS research from 2000 to 2022. The nodes represent authors, and the lines between the nodes represent the co-citation relationships. The different colors of the nodes represent the different years. The larger the node area, the greater the number of co-citations. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the publications.

Figure 9 Cluster networks of cited references related to acupuncture on CPPS research from 2000 to 2022. In the map, each color represents a cluster. The smaller the clustering label, the more articles in the cluster.

Table 8 Top 10 Frequency of Cited References Related to Acupuncture on CPPS

Rank	Frequency	References	Author and Publication Year
1	18	Acupuncture relieves symptoms in chronic prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome: a randomized, sham-controlled trial^Citation37	Sahin S (2015)
2	18	Acupuncture for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome: A Randomized, Sham Acupuncture Controlled Trial^Citation18	Qin ZS (2018)
3	17	Diagnosis and treatment of chronic bacterial prostatitis and chronic prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome: a consensus guideline^Citation38	Rees J (2015)
4	12	Acupuncture and immune function in chronic prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome: A randomized, controlled study^Citation39	Lee SWH (2014)
5	11	Effect of acupuncture on clinical symptoms and laboratory indicators for chronic prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis^Citation40	Liu BP (2016)
6	11	Effectiveness of Acupuncture on Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome Category IIIB Patients: A Prospective, Randomized, Nonblinded, Clinical Trial^Citation41	Kucuk EV (2015)
7	10	Systematic Review of Acupuncture for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome^Citation42	Qin ZS (2016)
8	7	Electroacupuncture Relieves Pain in Men With Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome: Three-arm Randomized Trial^Citation23	Lee SH (2009)
9	7	Acupuncture versus Sham Acupuncture for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome^Citation22	Lee SWH (2008)
10	7	Network Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Acupuncture, Alpha-Blockers and Antibiotics on Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome^Citation43	Qin ZS (2016)

Table 9 Top 10 Centrality of Cited References Related to Acupuncture on CPPS

Rank	Centrality	References	Author and Publication Year
1	0.27	Use of Acupuncture as a Treatment Method for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome^Citation44	Lee Sang-Hun (2011)
2	0.26	Acupuncture for pain in endometriosis^Citation45	Zhu XS (2011)
3	020	Systematic Review of Acupuncture for Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome^Citation42	Qin ZS (2016)
4	0.20	Hormone therapy for endometriosis and surgical menopause^Citation46	Al Kadri H (2009)
5	0.17	Endometriosis^Citation47	Bulun SE (2009)
6	0.16	Cyclooxygenase-2 Regulates Survival, Migration, and Invasion of Human Endometriotic Cells through Multiple Mechanisms^Citation48	Banu SK (2008)
7	0.16	Treating primary dysmenorrhoea with acupuncture: a narrative review of the relationship between acupuncture “dose” and menstrual pain outcomes. Acupuncture in Medicine^Citation49	Armour M (2016)
8	0.16	A principal component analysis is conducted for a case series quality appraisal checklist^Citation50	Guo B (2016)
9	0.14	Management of Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis^Citation5	Anothaisintawee T (2011)
10	0.14	The effectiveness of long-needle acupuncture at acupoints BL30 and BL35 for CP/CPPS: a randomized controlled pilot study^Citation51	Zhou MJ (2017)

Figure 10 Timeline view of acupuncture on CPPS. In the map, the later the timeline corresponding to each cluster indicates that the more likely the cluster is to become a new research hotspot.

Table 10 Top 10 Frequency and Centrality of Keywords Related to Acupuncture on CPPS

Rank	Keyword	Frequency	Rank	Keyword	Centrality
1	Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome	39	1	Acupuncture	0.58
2	Acupuncture	38	2	Double blind	0.33
3	Men	37	3	Endometriosis	0.33
4	Women	33	4	Chronic pelvic pain Syndrome	0.30
5	Chronic prostatitis	25	5	Complementary medicine	0.29
6	Double blind	23	6	Diagnosis	0.22
7	Management	23	7	Health	0.19
8	Pelvic pain	22	8	Chronic prostatitis	0.18
9	Prevalence	19	9	Epidemiology	0.14
10	Quality of life	17	10	Dysfunction	0.13

Figure 11 Clustered networks of keywords related to acupuncture on CPPS research from 2000 to 2022. In the map, each color represents a cluster. The smaller the clustering label, the more articles in the cluster.

Figure 12 Top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts.

Notes: The red bars demonstrated that the keyword was cited frequently, the green bars showed that the keyword was cited infrequently.

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