The role of curcumin supplementation in patients with migraine: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Objectives: Migraine is a repeated, chronic and neurovascular disease that adversely affects the quality of life and increases the risk of cerebral lesion. According to some previous studies, curcumin, the orange-yellow substance of turmeric, may possess anti-headache property according to several studies. This study aimed to meta-analytically evluate the anti-headache effect of curcumin supplementation in patients with migraine.

Methods: Five databases were searched as of September 30, 2022 to identify all eligible randomized controlled trials. The random-effect Hunter-Schmidt model was used to calculate the effect sizes based on the heterogeneity. The PROSPERO registration number for this meta-analysis is CRD42023409829 (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/).

Results: Four studies involving 170 patients finally met our inclusion criteria. Curcumin supplementation showed a significant difference in the severity of migraine symptoms compared with placebo (Hedges’s g= -0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI) =-1.44 to -0.07, P= 0.03). The results of subgroup analyses indicated that curcumin significantly reduce the duration of migraine in patients over 35 years of age (Hedges’s g= -0.63, 95%CI= -1.07 to -0.19, P< 0.01) and high-dose curcumin significantly reduced the severity of migraine symptoms (Hedges’s g= -1.65, 95%CI= -2.32 to -0.97, P< 0.01).

Conclusions: Curcumin supplementation may relieve the severity of headache symptoms in migraine sufferers and appear to be more effective for reducing the headache duration in patients over 35 years of age.