Gao Biao, Cai Mengyu, Qu Yicui, Zhang Yinyin, Lu Hongtao, Li Hongxia, Tang Yuxiao, Shen Hui
Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene Faculty of naval medicine Naval Medical University Support Center of Teaching and Research Naval Medical University Shanghai 200433 China
Abstract Objective To know the status quo of research on vitamins and depression. Method The precise search was conducted in
the Web of Science Database and the target literature assemblies of researches on "vitamins" and "depression" were identified. Use
the database online analysis tool and NoteExpress software analysis module to carry out general quantitative analysis and use CiteSpace
software to carry out network clustering co-occurrence analysis. A systematic review was carried out against the closely related highquality literature combining the results of the bibliometric analysis. Result The search finally yielded 2817 articles which were mainly
published in the journals of nutrition and psychiatry and there was 3 timepoint with relatively significant growth. The literature from the
USA and Europe accounted for the vast majority. Nine of the top 20 most-cited articles were from the USA 45% while the most
prolific authors and high -frequency citations came from Australia and European countries. Keywords such as vitamin D oxidative
stress vitamin B12
folic acid vitamin E vitamin A and meta-analysis have received much attention the research frontier includes
biomarkers gut microbiota serotonin systematic review etc. Most - cited citations 7 / 20 frontier citations 9 / 14 highest
intensity citations 13 / 20 and longest duration citations 18 / 22 are studies on vitamin D and mental health depression-like . The
keyword time-zone shows a wave of high-frequency words emerging around 2012 including " stress" "inflammation" " serum 25
hydroxyvitamin D " " vitamin D supplementation " and "C-reactive protein". The citation time-zone shows three-wave gatherings
emerging with the last one being denser while the citation clustering timeline shows a distinct temporal trend for different clusters.
Conclusion Research on vitamins and depression underwent a paradigm shift in 2013 with vitamin D and oxidative stress dominating
the field gut microbiota serotonin biomarker and systematic review being research frontiers. Research is unevenly distributed
regionally with the USA leading the way however the most prolific and influential authors and literature are from Australia and Europe countries. Meta-analysis and systematic review are still trusted by researchers.
