Skip to main content

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Psychological Therapy and Psychosomatics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1323794

Research on Music Therapy from 2013 to 2022: A Bibliometric and Visualized Study

Provisionally accepted
Liang Zhi Liang Zhi 1Dianrui Hou Dianrui Hou 2*Yaqing Hou Yaqing Hou 3*Meihua Ke Meihua Ke 3*Qingfang Zhang Qingfang Zhang 3Jianjun Long Jianjun Long 2*
  • 1 School of Rehabilitation, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, China
  • 2 Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
  • 3 Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Music therapy is a rapidly evolving multidisciplinary field. But there has been no research analyzing the latest research status and development trends in this research field from a macro perspective. We aim to identify hotspots, knowledge base, and frontiers in the field of music therapy through bibliometric analysis. Methods: All data were retrieved from the Web of Science core database from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2022.CiteSpace and Bibliometrix software were employed for bibliometric analysis and visualization analysis. Results: A total of 2,397 articles were included. In the past decade, there has been a consistent increase in the number of publications. The countries and institutions with the largest production in this field are the USA and the University of London. Based on the analysis of the total number of citations, centrality, and production, the results show that the most influential journals are PLoS One and Cochrane Database Syst Rev. Keyword co-occurrence analysis and highly cited study analysis are mainly used to analyze research hotspots in the field of music therapy, while the keyword burst analysis is employed to explore frontiers and potential developmental trends. Hot keywords include “interventions”, “anxiety” and “randomized controlled trial”. The burst keywords include “validity”, “preterm infants”, and “mild cognitive impairment”. In the ranking of highly cited study, the top ranked studies are “Music-based interventions in neurological rehabilitation” and “Music interventions for improving psychological and physical outcomes in cancer patients”. Conclusion: In the past decade, the research focus in music therapy was the effect of music therapy on neurological diseases and the improvement of psychological symptoms such as pain and anxiety. The neurophysiological mechanisms that bring about these therapeutic effects need to be future researched.

    Keywords: Music therapy (MT), Citespace, Visualized analysis, Bibliometric, Web of Science

    Received: 18 Oct 2023; Accepted: 25 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhi, Hou, Hou, Ke, Zhang and Long. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Dianrui Hou, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
    Yaqing Hou, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, 250355, Shandong Province, China
    Meihua Ke, Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, 250355, Shandong Province, China
    Jianjun Long, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.