Table 7.
Meta-analyses of RCTs investigating the effect of curcumin intake on depression and cognitive function.
| Ref. | No. of Studies Included | Health Status of Subjects | No. of Subjects | Age of Subjects (Years) | Design | Period (Weeks) |
Dose | Outcomes (Effect Size) |
Quality of Primary Studies | Databases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wang et al. 2021 [245] | 6 publications [139,246,247,248,249,250] | MDD (DSM-IV or Mini 6.0) | 520 | 40–76 | P | 5–12 | 500–1500 mg/day of curcumin | ↓ Depression (SMD = −0.35; 95% CI −0.56 to −0.15; I2 = 7%) |
Cochrane risk of bias tool (71.7%) | EMBASE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov |
| 4 publications [251,252,253,254] | T2DM, obesity, schizophrenia (DSM-IV), systemic lupus erythematosus | 77 | 25–68 | P, CO |
4–24 | 80–3000 mg/day of curcumin | ↔ Depressive symptoms (SMD = −0.32; 95% CI −0.50 to −0.13; I2 = 15%) |
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| 3 publications [139,248,250] | MDD (DSM-IV) | 440 | 23–53 | P | 6–12 | 500–1000 mg/day of curcumin | ↑ Response rates (OR = 3.20; 95% CI 1.28 to 7.99; I2 = 35%) |
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| Fusar-Poli et al. 2020 [255] | 9 publications [139,246,247,248,249,250,252,254,256] | MDD (DSM-IV), obesity, systemic lupus erythematosus | 599 | 17–81 | P, CO |
4–12 | 150–1500 mg/day of curcumin | ↓ Depression (Hedge’s g = −0.75; 95% CI −1.11 to −0.39; p < 0.001; I2 = 26.28%) |
Cochrane risk of bias tool (71.4%) | Web of Science, MEDLINE, KCI, Russian Science Citation Index, SciELO Citation Index, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, and ClinicalTrials.gov |
| 4 publications [248,249,252,256] | MDD (DSM-IV), obesity | 320 | 17–80 | P | 4–12 | 500–1000 mg/day of curcumin | ↓ Anxiety symptoms (Hedge’s g = −2.62; 95% CI −4.06 to −1.17; p < 0.001) |
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| unNg et al. 2017 [257] | 6 publications [139,246,249,250,252,256] | CGI-S ≥ 4, HAM-D17 ≥ 21, MADRS ≥ 22, BDI-II, DSM-IV, IDS-SR30 ≥ 14, HAM-D17 ≥ 7, HAM-D17 ≥ 10, MADRS ≥ 14 |
377 | 30–76 | P, CO |
4–8 | 500–1000 mg/day of curcumin | ↓ Depressive symptoms (SMD = −0.344; 95% CI −0.558 to −0.129; p = 0.002) |
Jadad scale (100%) | PubMed, Ovid, Clinical Trials Register of the Cochrane Collaboration Depression, Anxiety, and Neurosis Group (CCDANTR), and Cochrane Field for Complementary Medicine |
| Al-Karawi et al. 2017 [258] | 6 publications [139,246,249,250,252,256] | CGI-S ≥ 4, HAM-D17 ≥ 21, MADRS ≥ 22, BDI, DSM-IV, IDS-SR30 ≥ 14, HAM-D17 ≥ 7 HAM-D17 ≥ 10, MADRS ≥ 14 |
377 | 30–76 | P, CO |
4–8 | 500–1000 mg/day of curcumin | ↓ Major depression (SMD = −0.34; 95% CI −0.56 to −0.13; p = 0.002) | Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies (83.3%) | Pubmed, Scopus, Psychinfo, Evidence-Based Medicine Guidelines, DynaMed, JAMA evidence, and Cochrane Library |
| Tsai et al. 2021 [259] | 6 publications [260,261,262,263,264,265] | Alzheimer’s disease, obese, schizophrenia, healthy older adults | 264 | 28–82 | P | 6–24 | 160–4000 mg/day of curcumin | ↔ Cognitive function (Hedges’ g = 0.340; 95% CI −0.353 to 1.033; p = 0.337; I2 = 0.0%) |
Cochrane risk of bias tool (89.6%) | PubMed, Embase, ClinicalKey, Cochrane CENTRAL, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science |
| 3 publications [261,266,267] | Schizophrenia, obese, healthy older adults | 160 | 28–76 | P | 8–16 | 80–180 mg/day of curcumin | ↑ Working memory (Hedges’ g = 0.396; 95% CI 0.078 to 0.714; p = 0.015; I2 = 0.0%) |
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| Zhu et al. 2019 [268] | 3 publications [118,263,269] | healthy, elderly, nondemented | 196 | 54–73 | P | 4–72 | 80–1320 mg/day of curcumin | ↑ Cognitive function in the elderly (SMD = 0.33; 95% CI 0.05 to 0.62; p = 0.02) |
Cochrane risk of bias tool (80.0%) | PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov, Cochrane Library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, and China Biology Medicine disc |
| Sarraf et al. 2019 [270] | 4 publications [172,262,271,272] | Mets, premenstrual syndrome, schizophrenia, | 139 | 18–65 | P | 8–12 | 200–1820 mg/day of curcumin | ↑ BDNF (WMD = 1789.38 pg/mL; 95% CI 722.04 to 2856.71; p < 0.01; I2 = 83.5%; p < 0.001) |
Cochrane risk of bias tool (not indicated) | PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar |
BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor; BDI-II, Beck Depression Inventory II; CGI-S, Clinical Global Impression Severity Scale; CI, confidence interval; CO, crossover; DSM, diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders; HAM-D17, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, 17-item version; IDS-SR30, Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology—Self-rated; MADRS, Montgomery–Åsberg Depression Rating Scale; MDD, major depressive disorder; Mets, metabolic syndrome; OR, odds ratio; P, parallel; RCTs, randomized controlled trials; SMD, standardized mean difference; T2DM, type 2 diabetes mellitus; WMD, weighted mean differences. The quality of primary studies is indicated as a percentage of low risk (Cochrane risk of bias tool) or ≥3 (Jadad scale). ↑, increase; ↓, decrease; ↔ no effect.