Research status and development trends of acupuncture treatment for cognitive impairment

GUO Minmin; ZHANG Bo; DONG Ting; ZHANG Yuelang; ZHANG Qiujuan; MAO Cuiping

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2025.02.002

Abstract：Objective To analyze the current research status of acupuncture treatment for cognitive impairment and to predict the future development trends.Methods We searched Chinese literature related to acupuncture treatment for cognitive impairment published between 1995 and 2023 from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI)data-base.The CiteSpace 6.2.R7 software was used to perform the keyword co-occurrence analysis,cluster analysis,burst word analysis,and keyword time zone graph analysis.We also analyzed the data of authors and institutions,etc.Results A to-tal of 1,920 articles were published in CNKI between 1995 and 2023,and the number of publications increased year by year.The top five keywords in terms of occurrence frequency were acupuncture,cognitive function,cognitive impairment,acupuncture therapy,and vascular dementia.Keyword cluster analysis showed that"electroacupuncture"was the largest cluster,and the other clusters included"acupuncture","stroke","vascular dementia","acupuncture therapy","cogni-tive function","acupuncture and moxibustion","knee osteoarthritis","acupuncture treatment",and"dysfunction",etc.The analysis of burst word suggested that the two words that appeared earlier and lasted longer were"acupuncture treat-ment"and"cognition".The burst words that have appeared since 2020 include the"post-stroke cognitive impairment","acupoint selection","synaptic plasticity",and"Tongdu Tiaoshen acupuncture method".There were 27 authors who had published 5 or more papers.There were 22 institutions with more than 10 articles.The top three institutions in terms of the number of published papers were Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine,Guangzhou University of Chinese Medi-cine,and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.Conclusions Acupuncture is widely used to treat cognitive impair-ment caused by a variety of diseases,including vascular dementia,stroke,Alzheimer's disease and so on.Acupuncture methods are also constantly improving.In recent years,post-stroke cognitive impairment has become a research hotspot,and electroacupuncture has become a widely used acupuncture method.Acupuncture combined with rehabilitation training is a recommended method for treating cognitive impairment in the future,and cooperation among different authors and insti-tutions also needs to be strengthened.