Global performance of traditional Chinese medicine over three decades

Abstract

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), which is divided into three subfields, including Chinese medicine, Chinese herb and acupuncture, attracts increasing attentions due to its challenging and significant medical values. This study employs bibliometric analysis to examine the profile of publication activity in TCM field as well as its subfields. The data are retrieved from the Science Citation Index Expanded database during 1980-2009, and 16,536 papers are identified for analysis. Generally speaking, proportions of papers in subfield of acupuncture decreased dramatically, while the proportions of papers of Chinese medicine and Chinese herb rose increasingly. This study finds that East Asia has the largest number of TCM papers, followed by North America and Europe. Furthermore, while China is ranked first in terms of the amount of TCM publications, USA gains the highest percentage of citations. As for regional specialty, mainly, scholars in East Asia publish intensively in Chinese medicine, while most of the scholars in North America and Europe probe into the study of acupuncture. In the latest two decades, China took the first place over Japan in subfields of both Chinese medicine and Chinese herb, while the US has always kept the largest share in acupuncture with a marked upward trend. Regarding the top-ranked TCM institution, Chinese Academy of Sciences located in China, is ranked first in the subfields of Chinese medicine and Chinese herb as well. As for Kyung Hee University, which is located in South Korea, is ranked first in the number of acupuncture papers and Harvard University is ranked first in number of acupuncture citations.

CME Article: Perceptions of Acupuncture and Acupressure by Anesthesia Providers: A Quantitative Descriptive Study

“…Internationally, randomized controlled trials show that acupuncture and acupressure can enhance an anesthetic by decreasing anxiety and opioid requirements and treating postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV). 6,7 In the United States, both the Defense Department and the National Institutes of Health recognize acupuncture and acupressure as credible practices. The U.S. military uses acupuncture to relieve pain in military personnel, who must avoid opioids because of potential interference with alertness.…”

Status and Impact of Acupuncture Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global and Brazilian Scientific Output from 2000 to 2014

“…13 Moreover, many authors have been using SCI-E database to investigate bibliometric data in different areas, including complementary medicine. 2,14 In this study, the same keywords used in previous acupuncture bibliometric research were chosen. 1 The key search terms ''electroacupuncture'' or ''electro-acupuncture'' or ''acupoint*,'' ''acupunctur*,'' or ''percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation'' were used in the topic filter in the SCI-E database from 2000 to 2014.…”

“…1,2 From a historical point of view, there were two waves of development of acupuncture-related literature. 1 The first wave appeared in the 1970s with the demonstration of endogenous opioid release in an animal model of acupunctureinduced analgesia; this was augmented by a report written by a New York Times journalist of his experience in China of using acupuncture to treat his postappendectomy pain.…”

Bridging Ayurveda with evidence-based scientific approaches in medicine

“…Instead of any hierarchy of evidence, a circular model has been proposed to arrive at pragmatic but rigorous evidence which would provide significant assistance in clinical research [ 13 ]. Appreciably, over a period of time, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is starting to create large body of scientific evidence to support safety, pharmacology and clinical efficacy [ 14 ]. Ayurvedic medicine also needs to first discover epistemologically sensitive methods and then build objective scientific evidence with reasonable consistency to justify clinical decision making and therapeutics.…”