A Scoping Narrative Review of Curcumin in Pain Medicine: The Need for Further Study

Complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (CAIM) techniques, such as dietary interventions and herbal supplements, are frequently used by patients as a method of treating pain. The use of turmeric, or Curcuma longa, has gained popularity among patients in recent years, and as such, has become of particular interest to clinicians. While there are a growing number of studies on turmeric for specific painful conditions, there has not been a study summarizing the overall breadth of the literature on the use of turmeric in the field of pain medicine. This study aims to provide a scoping review of the use of turmeric in conditions, including but not limited to arthritis, neuropathic pain, and other related topics in pain medicine. This study found that most clinical research on the use of turmeric in pain control has been in the setting of knee osteoarthritis. Limited studies were found on the use of turmeric in osteoarthritis outside of the knee, neuropathic pain, acute postoperative pain, and in the pain-related conditions of anxiety and depression. Given the efficacy of turmeric in pain control of knee osteoarthritis, our findings suggest that more clinical research is needed on turmeric in additional areas of pain medicine.