Bibliometric analysis of research in epilepsy and comorbid depression from 2014 to 2023

Table 1 Summary of the data sources and selection

Category	Specific standard requirement
Research database	Web of Science core collection
Citation indexes	SCI-Expanded
Searching period	January 2014 to December 2023
Language	English
Searching keywords	(“Epilepsy” OR “Seizure” OR “Convulsion” OR “Epileptic”) AND (“Depression” OR “Depressive Symptoms” OR “Depressive Disorders”)
Document types	Articles and reviews
Data extraction	Export with full records and cite references in plain text format
Sample size	2962

Table 2 Top 5 most productive authors in the epilepsy and depression research field from 2014 to 2023

Rank	Author	Documents	Citations	Average citation/publication
1	Lee S	30	262	8.73
2	Sajatovic M	21	277	13.19
3	Jette N	18	698	38.78
3	Wiebe S	18	577	32.06
4	Kanner A	16	677	42.31
4	Patten S	16	553	34.56
5	Lin W	15	50	3.33

Table 3 The number of publications in the top 10 journals in the epilepsy and depression research field

Rank	Source	Publication	Citations	Average citation/publication
1	Epilepsy and Behavior	481	6740	14.01
2	Epilepsia	80	2221	27.76
3	Seizure-European Journal of Epilepsy	64	1178	18.41
4	Epilepsy Research	50	554	11.08
5	Frontiers in Neurology	28	331	11.82
6	Acta Neurologica Scandinavica	15	219	14.60
7	Epilepsia Open	14	47	3.36
8	Frontiers in Psychiatry	13	127	9.77
9	Neurology	12	233	19.42
10	Epileptic Disorders	12	88	7.33

Table 4 The top 5 countries and Institutions for publications in the field of epilepsy and depression research

Rank	Country	Publications	Citations	Institutions	Publications	Citations
1	United States	287	5106	University of Melbourne	34	411
2	England	121	2786	University of Ulsan	32	292
3	China	110	1205	University of Calgary	29	979
4	Canada	76	1717	Case Western Reserve University	28	358
5	Germany	70	1366	Kyungpook National University	22	523

Table 5 The co-occurrence keywords of the top 5

Rank	Keyword	Occurrences	Total link strength
1	Depression	643	5456
2	Epilepsy	605	5011
3	Anxiety	364	3235
4	Quality-of-life	307	2817
5	People	198	1834

Table 6 Analysis of the clusters of keywords in the epilepsy and depression research field

Cluster-ID	Silhouette	Mean	Included keyword (top 5)
0	0.651	2017	Temporal lobe epilepsy; depression-like behavior; mesial temporal lobe epilepsy; rij rat, and absence seizure
1	0.623	2017	High-risk people, Lebanese people, taking medication, family cohesion, and negative health events
2	0.610	2017	Family factor, psychogenic nonepileptic seizure, psychiatric disorder, emotional functioning, and patient caregiver
3	0.819	2016	Health-related quality, neurological disorders, depression inventory, risk factor, electroconvulsive therapy, and drug-resistant epilepsy
4	0.630	2017	Focal seizure, eslicarbazepine acetate, an antiepileptic drug, clinical practice finding, and Euro-Esli study
5	0.693	2016	Electroconvulsive therapy; magnetic seizure therapy; novel seizure quality index; ictal parameter; and case report
6	0.771	2016	Life depression, temporal lobe epilepsy surgery, prospective study, seizure freedom, and retrospective analysis
7	0.909	2018	Sleep quality, clinical features, sleep abnormalities, major determinants, and self-reported insomnia

Table 7 Top 5 most important publications in the epilepsy and depression research field

Rank	Title	Year	Citation
1	Quality of life of people with epilepsy: A European study	1997	182
2	Consensus statement: The evaluation and treatment of people with epilepsy and affective disorders	2008	171
3	Depression but not seizure frequency predicts quality of life in treatment-resistant epilepsy	2004	128
4	Epilepsy and risk of suicide: A population-based case-control study	2007	112
5	A brief questionnaire to screen for quality of life in epilepsy: The QOLIE-10	1996	111