Research Trends in Telogen Effluvium From 1975 to 2025: A Bibliometric Analysis
Katya Peri, Eric McMullen, Megan Park, Narachai Julanon, Jeffrey Donovan, Cathryn SibbaldABSTRACT
Background
Telogen effluvium (TE) is a common cause of diffuse hair loss. Bibliometric analyses systematically map research trends to identify influential studies and reveal knowledge gaps.
Objectives
To characterize research trends, influential publications, and knowledge gaps in the telogen effluvium literature through bibliometric analysis of the most cited articles.
Methods
Web of Science was searched from inception to May 2025 for studies involving patients with TE. Animal studies, non‐English articles, reviews, and abstracts were excluded. Bibliometric data including citation count and citations per year were extracted and manually analyzed.
Results
The 100 most cited articles were published between 1976 and 2023 with 2787 total citations (mean: 27.9 per article; total corpus h‐index of 30). Articles were classified into seven thematic categories. Associations between TE and comorbidities/exposures were most frequent ( n = 42), followed by treatment/management ( n = 25) and disease characterization ( n = 14). Quality of life/psychosocial impact was the smallest category ( n = 3). There was a large increase in citations in COVID‐19‐related publications in 2020–2021. Only six randomized controlled trials were identified.
Limitations
This analysis was restricted to Web of Science, potentially excluding articles indexed only in Scopus, Embase, or PubMed, among others. Also excluded were non‐English studies, citation bias favoring older articles, reliance on manual thematic categorization rather than software‐based network analysis, and the absence of formal inter‐rater agreement statistics.
Conclusions
Psychosocial outcomes, diagnostic criteria, and the ferritin‐hair loss relationship represent the most consequential underexplored areas. Future research should prioritize validated patient‐reported outcome measures, standardized diagnostic criteria, and adequately powered trials of nutritional interventions.