[A statistical analysis and perspective of headache-related papers covered in 2011 PubMed].

Objective: To investigate the distribution and hot spots of literatures on headache by bibliometric analysis in order to provide reference for further study.
Methods: Literatures that contained headache or migraine in text words published in 2011 in PubMed databases (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Pubmed) were searched. Journals, countries and subjects were bibliometrically analysed.
Results: There were 3683 papers involved to headache published in PubMed in 2011, of which 1527 papers were on headache research. The number of papers on headache research published by USA was the most followed by Italy and Germany (USA 23.25%, Italy 10.74%, Germany 5.83%). The mainly studied subjects were therapy (29.60%), pathophysiology (18.66%) and etiology (16.31%). 14.86% papers published in Cephalalgia, which is one of the most important journals, reported negative results.
Conclusion: The emphasis of headache research was on migraine. Therapy, pathophysiology and etiology were the hot spot. Literatures with negative result attracted authors to give the more attention.