SynthesisFrontiers in medicine2025
Visual analysis of research hotspots and trends of external therapies in traditional Chinese medicine for chronic pain.
Synthesis in Frontiers in medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effects of fire dragon cupping therapy for patients with post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Pooled it
- Tuina therapy alleviates neuropathic pain by modulating the CX3CL1/CX3CR1 axis to inhibit degradation of the perineuronal nets.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: We aimed to explore the current research status and development trend of chronic pain treated with external therapies in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and to provide a reference for further research in this field. Methods: From the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Web of Science, and PubMed databases, relevant articles on external therapies in TCM for chronic pain were selected as the research objects, and CiteSpace performed the bibliometric analysis. Results: A total of 3,220 English and 628 Chinese articles were included after CiteSpace was used to remove duplicate articles and perform manual screening. The English articles were analyzed; the core author is Witt, Claudia M, and the institution with the highest article production is Harvard University. The Chinese articles were analyzed, the core author is Fang Jianqiao, and the institution with the highest article production is Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The overall volume of publications is on an upward trend. Keyword analysis concluded that the research hotspots in this field were electroacupuncture therapy and tuina therapy, as well as common chronic pain-related diseases, and the research trends were cupping therapy, warm acupuncture therapy, and wrist and ankle acupuncture therapy, as well as chronic pain accompanied by depression. Conclusion: The results of this study suggested the relevant literature on external therapies in TCM for chronic pain. It highlights the direction for further exploration by revealing and analyzing the research hotspots and trends in this field.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.