Curcumin in depressive disorders: An overview of potential mechanisms, preclinical and clinical findings

Depressive disorders: Processes leading to neurogeneration and potential novel treatments

“…Curcumin, an age-old spice, extracted from turmeric (Curcuma longa) has long been used in complementary and alternative medicine for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. More recently, clinical and preclinical studies have shown promising results for an antidepressant effect with good tolerability associated with daily curcumin administration (Kaufmann et al, 2016;Sanmukhani et al, 2014). Most recently, in a RCT (n=123), MDD subjects were allocated to one of four treatment conditions, comprising placebo, low-dose curcumin extract (250mg twice daily), high-dose curcumin extract (500mg twice daily), or combined low-dose curcumin extract plus saffron (15mg twice daily) for 12 weeks (Lopresti and Drummond, 2017).…”

Cytokine alterations and cognitive impairment in major depressive disorder: From putative mechanisms to novel treatment targets

“…Curcumin has been found to supress production of proinflammatory cytokines including IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, TNF-α and VEGF (Kaufmann et al, 2016). This effect appears most likely due to down-regulation of the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-χB) signalling pathway (Buhrmann et al, 2011;Olivera et al, 2012).…”

“…Curcumin is a natural compound that exerts anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, improves synaptic plasticity and enhances neurogenesis, inhibits monoamine oxidase, increases production of neurotrophins, impacts HPA axis functioning as well as regulates serotoninergic and dopaminergic neurotransmission (Kaufmann et al, 2016). Curcumin has been found to supress production of proinflammatory cytokines including IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, TNF-α and VEGF (Kaufmann et al, 2016).…”

Effects of Curcumin in Experimental Diabetic Nephropathy

“…The therapeutic potential of curcumin has been evaluated in a variety of medical disorders including malignancies of several organs,28–30 neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease,31 Parkinson's disease,32 CV disease,23 33 diabetes,26 27 inflammatory bowel disease,34 wound healing35 ocular conditions such as cataract,36 age-related macular degeneration,37 and even psychiatric conditions such as depression 38. In all these studies, curcumin was found to be safe with no significant toxic effects but efficacy was demonstrable in most but not all the studies.…”