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Objective: We aimed to explore the current research status and development trend of chronic pain treated with external therapies in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and to provide a reference for further research in this field. Methods: From the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Web of Science, and PubMed databases, relevant articles on external therapies in TCM for chronic pain were selected as the research objects, and CiteSpace performed the bibliometric analysis. Results: A total of 3,220 English and 628 Chinese articles were included after CiteSpace was used to remove duplicate articles and perform manual screening. The English articles were analyzed; the core author is Witt, Claudia M, and the institution with the highest article production is Harvard University. The Chinese articles were analyzed, the core author is Fang Jianqiao, and the institution with the highest article production is Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The overall volume of publications is on an upward trend. Keyword analysis concluded that the research hotspots in this field were electroacupuncture therapy and tuina therapy, as well as common chronic pain-related diseases, and the research trends were cupping therapy, warm acupuncture therapy, and wrist and ankle acupuncture therapy, as well as chronic pain accompanied by depression. Conclusion: The results of this study suggested the relevant literature on external therapies in TCM for chronic pain. It highlights the direction for further exploration by revealing and analyzing the research hotspots and trends in this field.
Kong et al. (2026) studied this question.