Global trends in Alzheimer's disease treatment: A bibliometric analysis

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive and functional deficiencies, such as behavioral changes. As the disease progresses, neurons in the brain are damaged or disappeared. Nowadays, Alzheimer's disease and other common dementia do not have a treatment. None of the pharmacological treatments are currently effective in slowing down Alzheimer's dementia or stopping neuron damage.
METHODS: This paper offers a bibliometric analysis of the literature on treatments for Alzheimer's Disease indexed in the Web of Science database spanning 44 years. The study employed the VOSviewer visualization methodology to conduct the bibliometric analysis. The dataset consisted of articles retrieved from the Web of Science database, covering data on countries, institutions, journals, co-authorship, and international collaborations.
RESULTS: In total, 56,530 publications were collected from the Web of Science database.The United States of America (USA) emerged as the leading country in terms of published articles, accounting for 20,389 (36.068%) of the total, followed by China with 5,434 (9.613%) publications, and England with 4,594 (8.127%). Excluding the top three countries mentioned above, publications originated from 168 countries worldwide. Since the 2000s, there has been a notable increase in publication numbers. Leading affiliations include the University of California System (USA) (2.959%), Harvard University (USA) (2.117%), and the University of London (England) (1.951%). The majority of these prominent affiliations are situated in the USA.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In summary, this study represents the current bibliometric assessment of treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease. The results of this research will provide foresight to advanced Alzheimer's Disease Treatment research and provide different perspectives on its development.