Visual Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Menstrual Disorders from 2013 to 2023 Based on CiteSpace

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to visually analyze the use of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for the treatment of menstrual disorder symptoms from 2013 to 2023, using Citespace software, with the objective of understanding the field's developmental trajectory and frontier hotspots. METHODS: Relevant literature was retrieved from two major databases: China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and WANGFANG DATA (WanFang) and a database was constructed. The data were cleaned using NoteExpress and the annual publication count was statistically analyzed using Microsoft Excel, which was imported into Citespace to map authors, institutions, and keywords (co-occurrence, clustering, and emergent words) for visualization and analysis. RESULTS: The study totally included 815 articles after data cleaning according to the inclusion criteria, with an average annual publication volume of 74. The publication volume in most years fluctuated slightly around the mean, while there were some years with significant fluctuations. The Centrality of any author and institution was 0.00, indicating a lack of communication between authors, institutions and institutions, with only a few exceptions, such as researchers from Changchun University of Chinese Medicine (CCUCM) and the Guang'anmen Hospital of the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine (GAMHCATCM), Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (BJUCM) and GAMHCATCM, with the highest number of publications accumulating 5 articles, but no core group of authors has been formed yet. The main theme of the literature in this field is to validate the clinical efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in treating menstrual disorders, with decoction as the dosage form, usually taken orally after decoction or by enema. Acupuncture or combination with Western medicine may be used to enhance therapeutic effects at times. In recent years, the research hotspots are TCM compounding and TCM decoction.