Mapping the scientific research on atypical antipsychotic drugs in Spain: a bibliometric assessment

We carried out a bibliometric study on the scientific publications in relation to atypical antipsychotic drugs (AADs) in Spain.

We used the EMBASE and MEDLINE databases and we applied some bibliometric indicators of paper production and dispersion (Price's law and Bradford's law, respectively). We also calculated the participation index of the different countries and correlated the bibliometric data with some social and health data (total per capita expenditure on health and gross domestic expenditure on research and development).

We collected 656 original papers published between 1988 and 2011. Our study results fulfilled Price's law with scientific production on AADs showing exponential growth (correlation coefficient r = 0.9693, vs. r = 0.9177 after linear adjustment). The most widely studied drugs were risperidone (181 papers), olanzapine (143), clozapine (94), and quetiapine (74). Division into Bradford zones yielded a nucleus occupied by the European Psychiatry and European Neuropsychopharmacology (70 articles). Totally 194 different journals were published, with 5 of the first 10 used journals having an impact factor being greater than 4.

The publications on AADs in Spain have undergone exponential growth over the studied period, without evidence of reaching a saturation point.