Global Research Trends at the Intersection of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Traditional, Integrative, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Bibliometric Analysis

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and responsible for a global pandemic. Despite there being no known vaccines or medicines that prevent or cure COVID-19, many traditional, integrative, complementary and alternative medicines (TICAMs) have been touted as the solution, as well as researched as a potential remedy globally. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of global research trends at the intersection of TICAM and COVID-19. Methods: SCOPUS, MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED and PSYCHINFO databases were searched on June 5, 2020, with results being exported on the same day. All publication types were included, however, articles were only deemed eligible if they made mention of one or more TICAMs for the potential prevention, treatment, and/or management of COVID-19. The following eligible article characteristics were extracted: title; author names, affiliations, and countries; DOI; publication language; publication type; publication year; journal (and whether it is TICAM-focused); impact factor, and TICAMs mentioned. Results: A total of 178 eligible articles were published by 856 unique authors at 541 affiliations across 43 countries. The most common countries associated with author affiliation included China, United States, Italy and India. The vast majority of articles were published in English, followed by Chinese. Eligible articles were published across 100 journals, of which 24 were TICAM-focussed; only 69 journals had a 2018 impact factor, which ranged from 0.672-59.102. A total of 180 TICAMs were mentioned across eligible articles, with the most common ones including: Traditional Chinese Medicine (n=64), vitamin D (n=44), melatonin (n=10), general herbal medicine (n=9), and vitamin C (n=8). Conclusions: This study provides researchers and clinicians with a greater knowledge of the characteristics of articles that been published globally at the intersection of COVID-19 and TICAM to date. At a time where safe and effective vaccines and medicines for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 have yet to be discovered, this study may aid to guide the identification and exploration of understudied TICAM therapies that may hold potential in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.