Bibliometric Analysis of Psychological Distress in Stroke: Research Trends, Hot Spots, and Prospects- An Emphasis on China

Background: Currently, the psychological problems of stroke patients are of great concern. It is a hot topic of clinical care research to analyze and discuss the current status and hot spots, frontiers and development trends of research on psychological distress of stroke patients, and to develop and implement psycho-social care programs to improve the quality of life of patients.However, there is an absence of visual overviews to assess the published literature systematically. Methods: The Web of Science (WOS) database was used to search the relevant literature in this field, spanning the period 2009– 2023, and the countries, institutions, and research keywords in this field were visualized and analyzed by CiteSpace analysis software. Results: An analysis of 416 papers found that the overall trend of psychological distress in stroke patients was increasing, and the research hotspots were mainly focusing on the relationship between different risk factors and psychological distress in stroke patients, psychological distress in stroke caregivers, positive psychology in stroke patients, and interventions on psychological distress in stroke patients. In the future, the research population may gradually shift to stroke caregivers, and the research focus will be on developing and studying scales. Conclusion: Visual analysis of psychological distress studies in stroke patients can provide strategies for clinical interventions and broaden thinking about clinical care. Keywords: stroke, psychological distress, emotional distress, visualization analysis, Citespace