[Current situation and developmental trend of anthelmintics by bibliometrics].
OBJECTIVE
To understand the current situation and developmental trend of anthelmintics in English journals through a bibliometric analysis.


METHODS
The literature was searched in Pubmed Database (1997-2007) using the following key words: "drug therapy", "anthelmintics", "humans", "pharmacology", and "parasitology". Access Database was constructed by relative literature through proper data admission method. The relative articles in the database were sorted by different categories, such as "research categories", "publishing year" and "research drug". Data were analyzed by using SPSS software.


RESULTS
The annual number of anthelmintics articles increased steadily from year 1997 to 2007. The average number of annual increase was about 6. The major research category was applied research. The major diseases were schistosomiasis, filariasis, ascariasis, echinococcosis and hookworm disease. The number of articles on schistosomiasis was higher than that of other four diseases (P<0.05). The major drugs involved were albendazole, praziquantel, mebendazole, ivermectin and diethylcarbamazine. Articles on the anthelmintics were published mostly in medical journals. From the total database, articles published at the top five journals occupied 5.52%, 4.39%, 3.76%, 3.26%, and 3.26%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Increasingly importance has been attached to anthelmintics in the last decade. Meanwhile, the researchers focused on a few anthelmintics, and it is inevitable to develop new drugs.
Zheng
Qi
Q
National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention, WHO Collaborating Centre of Malaria, Schistosomiasis and Filariasis, Shanghai, China.
Chen
Ying
Y
Tian
Li-Guang
LG
Zhou
Xiao-Nong
XN
D015766:Albendazole; D000871:Anthelmintics; D015706:Bibliometrics; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D000871:Anthelmintics; D015766:Albendazole