Objectives: Migraine is a repeated, chronic and neurovascular disease that adversely affects the quality of life and increases the risk of cerebral lesion. Curcumin, the orange-yellow substance of turmeric, may possess anti-headache performance according to several studies. Thus, this study set out to meta-analytically access 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. In the results, 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 supplementation was statistically significant in reducing 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 the headache duration in patients over 35 years of age.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding

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