Combat stress research prospects in Russian academic publications analyzed using to VOSviewer software (2005–2021)
Authors: Evdokimov V. I. , Shamrey V. K. , Pluzhnik M. S. 
Published: June 2023

Relevance. Last decades have seen an increase in local wars and armed conflicts, that more often than not are associated with manifestations of combat stress and other types of stress-associated psychic disorders in the military and civilians. Prompt prevention of acute (short-term) events of combat psychic trauma (combat stress) can be associated with subsequent adaptive stress response and general increase physical adaptability to extreme pathogenic impacts (including combat-specific factors); in absent, such events transform into chronic (persistent) conditions within clinically defined stress-associated psychic disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) in the long-term and comorbid psychosomatic pathology.

The objective is to use VOSviewer software to study research prospects in publications by Russian investigators on combat stress (2005–2021).

Methods. The search engine yielded 894 references to publications on combat stress issues, indexed with the Russian Science Citation Index from 2005 through 2021. Publications on the special military operation in Ukraine were not considered. In terms of content, the papers were aligned with rubrics of the classifier. Investigators who had published the largest number of articles underwent scientometric assessment. VOSviewer software was used to identify the largest scientific clusters and networks. The paper reports median values, the upper and lower quartiles (Me [q25; q75]) of mean annual number of published papers.

Results and discussion. Annually, fifty-seven 57 [44; 64] papers on combat stress published in Russia were indexed. The distribution by research field included general combat stress problems issues – 7 %, biological aspects – 11.1 %, medical aspects – 23 %, social and psychological aspects – 58.9 %. Content structure dynamics revealed an upward trend in the number of papers devoted to general, biological, social and psychological problems, with a decrease in the number of papers on medical issues. With 9 repetitive key words or 4 repetitive authors, VOSviewer software identified 5 clusters of papers and 11 academic co-authorships. Cluster 1 included a set of papers on combat stress disorder with Total Link Strength of 40.1 %, cluster 2 – social and psychological problems of combat stress (22.2 %), cluster 3rd – psychosomatic disorders in combat veterans (13.1 %), cluster 4 – human behavior in extreme environments (12.4 %), cluster 5 – stress manifestations in civilians during combat operations (12.2 %).

Conclusion. The conducted research demonstrates a focus shift of content in Russian academic publications on combat stress from medical issues to social and psychological repercussions, as well as increased number of papers on the diagnostics of human behavior amid vital stress conditions, development of stress-related mental resistance, psychoprophylaxis, psychological correction and psychotherapy of stress and post-stress disorders. An academic e-library provides researchers with for excellent information resources and tools, with about 80% of papers on combat stress available in full version free of charge.