The Therapeutic Landscape of Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy and Hyperemesis Gravidarum: Five Decades of Evolving Treatment and Supportive Care
Background/Objectives: Among the most common medical conditions of pregnancy, nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) and its severe form hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) represent a clinically significant and increasingly researched area of maternal health. However, the global evolution, structural organization, and thematic development of this literature remain insufficiently characterized. This bibliometric study maps five decades of global research on therapeutic and supportive interventions for NVP and HG. Methods: Web of Science Core Collection records were searched on 10 May 2026, restricted to English-language articles and reviews published up to 2025, and deduplicated to 1182 unique documents. A secondary thematic filter was subsequently applied to generate a refined obstetric subset for the country collaboration, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic evolution analyses. Bibliometric performance, collaboration networks, source impact, institutional output, PELT-based changepoint detection, metadata completeness, keyword co-occurrence, and thematic evolution were analyzed using VOSviewer, Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny, and custom Python scripts. Results: Publication output increased markedly after 2010 and reached its maximum in 2025. PELT sensitivity analysis localized the principal transitions to the mid-1990s and early 2010s, informing three broad analytical macroperiods: 1975–1994, 1995–2009, and 2010–2025. The United States dominated cumulative output and collaboration intensity, while Canada, England, Australia, Italy, Germany, and China showed substantial scientific influence. Core publication venues were concentrated in obstetrics, gynecology, reproductive safety, and pregnancy-focused clinical medicine. Keyword and thematic analyses showed a transition from early vomiting, Bendectin, exposure, and pregnancy-safety concerns toward pharmacological treatment, complementary interventions, controlled clinical evaluation, maternal–fetal outcomes, and supportive management. Metadata-completeness analysis identified a major pre-1991 indexing discontinuity, requiring caution when interpreting long-range keyword-based trends. Conclusions: These findings outline the trajectory of the field and highlight priorities for future research, including stronger comparative evidence for pharmacological, complementary, and supportive-care strategies, broader international collaboration, and prospective studies to strengthen the evidence base for managing NVP and HG.
Authors
- Delia Mirela Ţiţ (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0296-6592)
- Andrei-Flavius Radu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7625-8177)
- Gabriela Bungău
- Ada Radu
- Flavia Gabriela Ban
Institutions
- University of Oradea (RO)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Medical Sciences
- Published
- 2026-07-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/medsci14030419
- Primary Topic
- Pregnancy and Medication Impact
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00