Evidence Hub

Research hotspots, context, and future directions of ulcerative colitis comorbid with depression from 2006 to 2025: a bibliometric and visualization analysis

Yang Y, Wang Y, Zhang S, Chen G, Ji S, Wang X, Li S

Frontiers in medicine, 2026

Abstract

Background: Depression is highly prevalent in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), affecting prognosis and patients' quality of life. While related studies grow rapidly, a systematic review of the development trends in this field is still lacking. Based on this, the present study used bibliometric and visualization analysis methods to systematically examine the research landscape, hot topics, and future directions in the global field of UC comorbid with depression.

Methods: Relevant literature published between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2025 in the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) and Scopus databases was retrieved. CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to analyze countries, journals, authors, references, and keywords, and co-occurrence network maps were generated. For complementary analysis, clinical trial articles published in PubMed over the same time period were retrieved.

Results: A total of 2,069 papers were included in the visualization analysis, with an additional 28 records identified through supplementary searching. In 2021, the number of publications increased significantly and has since remained at a relatively high level. International academic exchanges in UC comorbid with depression research are active, with the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada being the core research forces in this field. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases is the most published and most representative professional journal. Bernstein, Charles N. and Mikocka-Walus,…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a systematic review, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.

How the five levels of evidence work. The level is assigned automatically from the abstract and can be wrong, so check the paper.

Read the paper

Related studies

Go deeper in Evidence Hub

Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.

Open this study Sign up free