Evolution of psychocardiological research: A bibliometric analysis of 111,140 records and 100 highly cited papers

This bibliometric study analyzed psychocardiological and neuropsychiatric cardiovascular research using the Scopus database (1977-2020). Three search approaches-Title-Abstract-Keywords (TAK), abstract-only, and title-only-yielded 111,140, 47,402, and 6,060 records, respectively, with the title-only dataset used for detailed analyses. A total of 100 highly cited documents were further examined. The field demonstrated a moderate annual growth rate of 2.59%, with a high citation impact (average 659.5 citations per document) and an average document age of 22.5 years. Publication output increased markedly after 2000, peaking in 2025 (n = 470). The United States (n = 1,749), China (n = 1,291), and the United Kingdom (n = 505) were leading contributors, with strong institutional output from VA Medical Centers, Washington University, and Duke University. Co-word and clustering analyses identified dominant themes including psychosocial cardiovascular risk, depression in coronary and cerebrovascular disease, pharmacological and psychotherapeutic interventions, and prognostic outcomes in myocardial infarction and stroke. Overall, the findings highlight a rapidly expanding, interdisciplinary field integrating psychological factors into cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research, with increasing clinical and translational relevance. Cluster analysis of co-occurring keywords (≥2 occurrences) identified five major thematic domains within psychocardiological research. These included psychosocial determinants of cardiovascular disease, pharmacological and clinical management of heart failure, antidepressant effects on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems, prognostic outcomes in myocardial infarction, and evidence synthesis methodologies. Overall, the clusters reflect an integrated framework linking psychological factors, biological mechanisms, and clinical outcomes across cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disorders.