A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Trends on Companion Animals and Mental Health: Revealing Research Hotspots and Future Prospects

Companion animals have increasingly become central to human emotional life, yet the literature linking living with companion animals, human–animal interaction, and mental health remains fragmented. This study mapped global research trends on companion animals and mental health from 2000 to 2024 using bibliographic records retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). A final dataset of 930 peer-reviewed articles was analyzed with Bibliometrix (RStudio), CiteSpace, and VOSviewer to characterize publication growth, national and institutional collaboration, influential authors and journals, co-cited references, keyword clusters, and citation bursts. Results show a strong nonlinear increase in output after 2015, with the United States as the dominant contributor and Australia and the WoSCC country node labelled England (distinct from Scotland) as important international bridges. Core knowledge clusters center on human–animal interaction, animal-assisted intervention, older adults, child/adolescent development, loneliness, attachment, and post-traumatic stress. Recent burst terms and references indicate a shift from general companion-animal caregiving and physiological stress buffering toward intervention design, vulnerable populations, and pandemic-era mental health. Overall, the field has matured into an interdisciplinary research area with growing methodological sophistication, but future work should strengthen cross-cultural evidence, longitudinal designs, standardized outcome measures, and explicit assessment of animal welfare.