Mapping Knowledge Landscapes and Evolving Trends of Clinical Hypnotherapy Practice: A Bibliometrics-Based...

Area of Science:

• Clinical Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Health Sciences

Background:

• Global interest in hypnotherapy for various health conditions is increasing.
• Research and publications on hypnotherapy have seen a significant rise.
• Scientometric analysis is crucial for understanding development patterns and research trends.

Purpose of the Study:

• To visualize development patterns in clinical hypnotherapy practice.
• To identify current research hotspots in the field.
• To predict future research directions through keyword trend analysis.

Main Methods:

• Bibliometric data collected from Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed (1994-2023).
• Analysis and visualization using VOSviewer, R's Bibliometrix package, and CiteSpace.
• Keyword trending topic analysis for future research prediction.

Main Results:

• 1,549 publications analyzed, showing an 8.5% annual growth rate.
• United States is the leading research hub, with significant contributions from 1,464 institutions and 3,195 scholars.
• Key topics include Pain, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), and Anxiety; trending topics are Self-Hypnosis, Virtual Reality, and Meditation.

Conclusions:

• Hypnotherapy is increasingly used for pain, IBS, and anxiety.
• Evidence-based approaches are vital for assessing hypnotherapy's clinical effectiveness.
• Future research should explore self-hypnosis, virtual reality hypnotherapy, and collaborative research.