Trends in anorexia nervosa research: an analysis of the top 100 most cited works.

Analysis of highly cited papers provides unique insights into the status of research in a given field. We sought to identify the top 100 most highly cited papers in the field of anorexia nervosa (AN). A free, publically accessible software was used to conduct an online search of publications with accompanying citation data. Search terms were selected to focus on papers dealing predominantly with AN, and the results manually screened to exclude out-of-scope publications. Papers in bulimia nervosa, eating disorder not otherwise specified and binge-eating disorder, were not included. The top 100 most highly cited papers in the AN field were identified. Of these, 34 garnered greater than 400 citations, classifying them as 'citation classics'. These works were divided into five categories, those dealing with epidemiological trends, medical/psychiatric comorbidities, treatment, mechanisms of disease and measurement/classification. Publications examining the epidemiology and underlying mechanisms of AN account for the majority of the top 100 papers. Scales and measurement tools have had the greatest impact, garnering the greatest number of average citations per paper. Although reasonably diverse, the top 100 papers highlight areas still lagging behind, including the neuroscience of AN as well as research into novel treatment strategies.