Curcumin therapy for knee osteoarthritis Save

Curcumin is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat arthritis and is presumed to have analgesic and antiinflammatory effects that may benefit those with osteoarthritis, particularly knee osteoarthritis (KOA).

A network metanalysis was performed to gauge the efficacy and safety of curcumin, both alone and in combination with other drugs (eg, NSAIDs), in the treatment of KOA. 

The study included 23 studies and 2175 KOA patients with 6 different interventions.

Compared with placebo, curcumin significantly reduced pain scores (MD = -1.63, 95% CI: -2.91 to -0.45) and total WOMAC score (MD = -18.85, 95% CI: -29.53 to -8.76).

Need for rescue pain medicine was also reduced with curcumin:

• Compared with placebo (OR = 0.17, 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.36)
• Curcumin + NSAIDs (OR = 0.01, 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.13)
• NSAIDs (OR = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.02 to 0.47)

Adverse events: Compared with NSAIDs, curcumin (OR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.25 to 0.94) and curcumin + NSAIDs (OR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.06 to 0.9) had a reduced incidence of adverse reactions.

These studies suggest that curcumin monotherapy, curcumin + chondroprotective agents, and curcumin + NSAIDs demonstrate clinical efficacy in KOA treatment.