Progress in research on the bidirectional relationship between circadian rhythm and depression: A bibliometric analysis

This study used VOSviewer and CiteSpace to conduct a bibliometric analysis of 444 publications on the relationship between circadian rhythms and depression, retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (January 2015 to April 2025). Publication numbers remained low until 2017 but increased markedly after 2018, with the United States contributing the largest share. Ian B. Hickie and Joanne S. Carpenter were the most prolific authors; the University of Pittsburgh and Chronobiology International were the most productive institution and journal, respectively. McClung, Dubocovich, and Logan were the top co-cited authors, while frequent keywords included “expression,” “sleep,” “circadian rhythms,” and “melatonin.” These findings underscore the growing importance of circadian rhythms in depression pathophysiology and therapy, with future research likely to focus on diagnosis, biomarker identification, individualized treatment, prognosis, and health management.