Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in schizophrenia research: a quantitative review and future directions

This review aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of the research related to brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in schizophrenia and offer suggestions for further work. Based on the keywords used, our study retrieved 335 documents for further analysis using a combination of three bibliometric techniques: co-word analysis, document co-citation analysis, and bibliographic coupling. A general rising trend in the number of publications was found in BDNF and schizophrenia research. Researchers from China and the United States have mostly researched BDNF and schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry is the most prestigious journal in the field of BDNF and schizophrenia research. The main topics and important research areas are cognition and the involvement of BDNF as a neurobiological marker (pathogenesis, therapy monitoring, and risk factors). Future research is anticipated to concentrate on relevant subjects, such as factors that affect BDNF levels or are connected to BDNF dysfunction in schizophrenia, as well as animal models of schizophrenia, in addition to cognition in schizophrenia.