Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatr. Jun 19, 2021; 11(6): 253-264
Published online Jun 19, 2021. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v11.i6.253
Current global research landscape on COVID-19 and depressive disorders: Bibliometric and visualization analysis
Samah W Al-Jabi
Samah W Al-Jabi, Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus 44839, West Bank, Palestine
Author contributions: Al-Jabi SW developed the concept for the manuscript, reviewed the literature, formulated research questions, collected the data, conducted analyses, and interpreted the data; Al-Jabi SW read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares that she has no conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Samah W Al-Jabi, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Academic Street, Nablus 44839, West Bank, Palestine. samahjabi@yahoo.com
Received: January 13, 2021
Peer-review started: January 15, 2021
First decision: March 30, 2021
Revised: April 2, 2021
Accepted: May 24, 2021
Article in press: May 24, 2021
Published online: June 19, 2021
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Over the last year, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a major impact on daily life around the world. The COVID-19 epidemic is predicted to have a massive and long-lasting effect on mental health, resulting in a range of global issues that must be tackled.

Research motivation

To date, there is not a bibliometric study assessing depression research and COVID-19 at the global level. Capturing relevant literature is important for understanding the characteristics and trends of a specific focus area. It can also rapidly and reliably present the most relevant studies regarding depression research and COVID-19, which provides the theoretical foundation for further research.

Research objectives

This bibliometric analysis was conducted to examine Scopus-based depression research and COVID-19, clarify current research progress, and illustrate the potential hotspots in depression research and COVID-19 in order to gain a more global perspective.

Research methods

The Scopus database was used to find relevant research on depression and COVID-19. The VOSviewer program was used to build visualization maps, which included research collaboration.

Research results

During the initial stage of the COVID-19 epidemic, this bibliometric analysis can enable researchers to discover the current status and emerging trends in depression-related publications. High-income countries which include the United States, China, Italy, United Kingdom, and Canada, are the leaders in the world in depression-related publications following the pandemic of COVID-19, contributing to the majority of the total published literature. The United States had the most collaboration with other countries worldwide. The research has also shown that a large number of articles focused on mental health outcomes among the general population and health care workers.

Research conclusions

According to the findings of this report, several articles focused on mental health outcomes in the general population and among health-care staff. Mental health in diverse populations should be included in the local and global public health agenda with sufficient psychological support provided by the government or community organizations.

Research perspectives

Because current knowledge on the key psychological distress impacts of COVID-19 is scarce and little is known in the production of reports on this subject, a descriptive and visual quantification of scientific research on COVID-19 and its impact on depression will allow information professionals, psychiatrists, and experts from other fields of medicine, in addition to local authorities and community health staff, to obtain an empirical view of evolution, current scope, and depression.