SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Clinical Nutrition
Bibliometric Analysis of Ketogenic Diet for Pain Based on Dual Databases: Global Trends and Research Hotspots from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus (2006–2025)
Provisionally accepted
- Dazhou Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, DaZhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objective The ketogenic diet (KD) has demonstrated beneficial effects on pain, yet no bibliometric study has systematically explored this association. This study aimed to evaluate global research trends and emerging hotspots on "ketogenic diet for pain" from 2006 to 2025, providing quantitative evidence and forward-looking perspectives for future basic and clinical research. Methods Publications from 2006 to 2025 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and Scopus databases. Bibliometric analyses were conducted using Bibliometrix (R package), VOSviewer, and CiteSpace to assess performance and generate visualizations. Results This study included 328 eligible publications from the WoSCC and 786 from the Scopus database. From 2006 to 2021, the annual number of publications on KD–related pain research showed a sustained upward trend, followed by a phase of high-level fluctuation between 2022 and 2025. The United States emerged as the leading contributing country. An international collaboration network was formed, with the University of Basel (Switzerland) and Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) serving as central hubs. Nutrients published the largest number of articles and received widespread citations, whereas Cephalalgia was the most frequently cited journal. Nutrients and Epilepsia functioned as key academic collaboration hubs. Keyword co-occurrence and clustering analyses identified three major thematic domains: (1) the direct analgesic effects of the KD and its role in the management of chronic inflammatory pain; (2) the neuroprotective mechanisms of the KD and its synergistic analgesic effects when combined with pharmacological therapies; and (3) the improvement of comorbid mood disorders and the mitigation of metabolic risks associated with ketogenic dietary interventions. Current research hotspots focus on dietary strategies for migraine management, the application of KD in chronic pain conditions, and ketone body–mediated anti-inflammatory and neuromodulatory mechanisms. Conclusion Research on the beneficial role of KD in pain management has attracted growing global attention and is expected to become an important direction in future pain management. This study provides a comprehensive bibliometric overview of the current status and research hotspots, offering valuable guidance for subsequent investigations.
Keywords: bibliometric analysis, Dual-database approach, Ketogenic Diet, Pain Management, Research hotspots
Received: 01 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Liao, Cheng, Liu, Xiong and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Mo Liao
Yongsheng Yu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.