Understanding the Opioid Overdose Crisis: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis

Background and Objective: Opioid overdose represents a critical public health issue that has attracted considerable research interest. Therefore, objective of this study aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the opioid overdose research (OOR) landscape, performance, evolution, citation impact and changing research themes. Materials and Methods: A bibliometric analysis was performed on the OOR data published between, 1971 and 2024. Data were gathered from the Scopus database and analyzed using Bibliometrix and VOSviewer. Citation counts, prolific authors, top sources, and seminal publications were also identified. Thematic mapping was performed to aid the visualization of the major clusters in the OOR data. Results: The analysis included 13,971 authors who contributed to the OOR. Prolific authors, such as Walley, A.Y., and Green, T.C., made notable contributions. "Drug and alcohol dependence" emerged as the top source in the publications. The United States exhibited the highest research output, followed by Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The average citation count per article was 22.44, indicating the impact and visibility of the research. Seminal publications have addressed critical topics including opioid prescription patterns, economic burden, medication-assisted therapies, and overdose prevention programs. Thematic mapping revealed clusters related to drug overdose, opioids, overdose prevention, toxicology, buprenorphine, and opioid use disorders. Conclusion: The findings showed an ongoing need for further studies on gap filling, such as long-term consequences, socioeconomic factors and inequalities, in addition to technology application and interdisciplinary collaboration. By focusing on new themes, as well as longitudinal studies, stakeholders can gain improved knowledge on opioid overdose problem-solving solutions that have been applied to victims and their communities, thereby improving outcomes.