Childhood adversity and autoimmune diseases: global research landscape, immune-related hotspots, and emerging trends from a bibliometric analysis of three databases

Background Childhood adversity is increasingly recognized as an important early-life psychosocial exposure that may shape long-term immune function and contribute to autoimmune diseases through chronic stress, neuroendocrine dysregulation, and inflammatory activation. However, the knowledge structure, research hotspots, and developmental trends in this field remain insufficiently characterized. Methods Publications on childhood adversity and autoimmune diseases were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and PubMed from database inception to December 31, 2025. After screening, standardization, and deduplication, 319 records were included. Bibliometric analyses were performed using R, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace to evaluate publication trends, contributions of countries, institutions, authors, and journals, collaboration networks, keyword co-occurrence, thematic clustering, and citation impact. Original articles and reviews were reported separately, and an article-only sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the influence of reviews on the main findings. Results Among the 319 publications, 257 (80.6%) were original articles and 62 (19.4%) were reviews. Publication output increased steadily, with rapid growth after 2021 and a peak in 2022. The United States led the field in publication output, citation impact, and international collaboration, while the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany were also major contributors. Leading institutions included the University of California System, Harvard University, and the University of Manitoba. Major publication venues included Journal of Psychosomatic Research and Psychosomatic Medicine . Keyword analysis identified childhood adversity, depression, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, stress, autoimmune disease, and inflammation as major hotspots. Highly cited publications indicated that the field is rooted in stress biology, psychoneuroimmunology, inflammatory mechanisms, and disease-specific autoimmune research. Sensitivity analyses showed that major thematic and source-level patterns remained relatively stable after reviews were excluded, whereas reviews were disproportionately represented among highly cited publications. Conclusions Research on childhood adversity and autoimmune diseases has developed into a growing interdisciplinary field linking psychosocial stress, immune-inflammatory dysregulation, and disease-specific outcomes. Future research should strengthen standardized definitions, longitudinal and causal evidence, and translational studies on risk stratification and early prevention.