Toward a canoe of the pain and analgesia literature: A citation analysis

The purpose of this study was to use citation analysis to identify major th emes and contributors to the pain and analgesia Literature over the past tw o decades. A citation analysis was performed on a database of more than 110 ,000 articles in the biomedical literature from January 1981 through June 1 997, and in the interval from January 1988 through June 1997. Articles and authors related to pain and analgesia research and practice were identified by searching approximately 7,700 journals. The 20 articles and 20 authors with the most citations were then checked by hand to ensure relevance to pa in or analgesia. Most of the high-impact articles identified pertained to r esearch on basic pain pathways. Nearly all the articles concerned opioids, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs, and consequences of analgesic use. Non e of the highest-impact articles address assessment of clinical pain. Few w omen were first authors of any most frequently cited paper. Citation analys is is a useful tool in identifying important contributions to the biomedica l literature. Recent and continuing research trends include the use of nons teroidal antiinflammatory drugs, opioid mechanisms, and persistent pain dis orders. Current trends expected to become stronger include description of p ain from the patient's perspective and mechanisms of the transit-ion from a cute to chronic pain. Implications: We performed a citation analysis to ide ntify important contributions and contributors to the biomedical literature . Recent pain and analgesia research has been focused on mechanisms of pain , but evidence suggests the importance of understanding the pain experience from the patient's perspective and the transition from acute to chronic pa in.