Cognitive-behavioral Therapy for Schizophrenia: A Bibliometric and Scientometric Study of Global Evidence, Gaps, and...

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is increasingly recognized as a pivotal adjunctive treatment for schizophrenia, aiming to address persistent symptoms and enhance functional recovery beyond pharmacotherapy. Despite a significant growth in CBT-related publications in recent years, comprehensive bibliometric and scientometric syntheses remain scarce. This study aims to systematically analyze the global research landscape, intellectual structures, and emerging thematic trends in CBT for schizophrenia, providing an evidence-based overview of developments and research gaps from a bibliometric perspective. The Core databases of Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed were utilized to retrieve articles on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Schizophrenia that were published up to December 2025. Bibliometrics was applied to perform both quantitative and qualitative analyses of authors, institutions, countries, journals, references, and keywords, leveraging tools such as VOSviewer, Microsoft Excel. A total of 1,587 articles were encompassed in this study, comprising 1,210 original research articles and 377 review papers. The United States emerged as the country with the highest productivity and citation counts, contributing 486 publications and accumulating 21,412 citations, followed by the United Kingdom and Canada. King's College London stood out as the leading institution in the field, with the highest number of publications and citation impact among academic centers. However, the article with the highest average citation rate was authored by Douglas Turkington, highlighting his pivotal role in CBT research for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin proved to be the most influential journal in this domain, with its articles being cited over 7,800 times, positioning it as a core platform for scholarly dissemination. This bibliometric and scientometric study comprehensively maps global research on CBT for schizophrenia, highlighting key contributors, collaboration networks, and thematic evolutions from inception to 2025. Current research hotspots focus on integrating CBT with antipsychotic treatments and evaluating efficacy through randomized trials. Future research trends are anticipated to pivot towards digital health interventions, teletherapy modalities, and AI-assisted assessments, with an urgent need to develop standardized outcome measures and age-adapted CBT protocols. Addressing these conceptual and methodological gaps, alongside fostering broader international collaborations, will be essential for advancing evidence-based, patient-centered CBT applications in schizophrenia.