Global research status and trends of somatic symptom disorder: A bibliometric study

With the growing scholarly and clinical fascination with somatic symptom disorder (SSD), a bibliometric analysis is lacking.

To conduct a bibliometric analysis to investigate the current status and frontiers of SSD.

The documents related to SSD are obtained from the web of science core collection database (WoSCC), and VOSviewer 1.6.16 from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2023, and the WoSCC's literature analysis wire were used to conduct the bibliometric analysis.

A total of 567 documents related to SSD were included, and 2325 authors across 947 institutions from 57 countries/regions have contributed to SSD research, published in 277 journals. The most productive author, institution, country and journal were Löwe B, University of Hamburg, Germany, and Journal of Psychosomatic Research respectively. The first high-cited document was published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research in 2013 by Dimsdale JE and colleagues, which explored the rationale behind the SSD diagnosis introduction in diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.

In conclusion, the main research hotspots and frontiers in the field of SSD are validity and reliability of the SSD criteria, functional impairment of SSD, and the treatment for SSD. More high-quality studies are needed to assess the diagnosis and treatment of SSD.