BMJ  2006;332:373-374 (18 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7538.373

Editorial

Does melatonin help people sleep?

It's a misapplied but probably safe miracle drug

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In North America melatonin is a popular wonder drug which has the legal status of a "nutritional supplement," although that is a legal fiction. As a result it is not regulated as a medicine and is advertised and sold widely—in pharmacies, drug stores, health food shops, and on the internet. Many millions of people use it, mostly because they believe it will help them sleep. However, the claims made for melatonin products and their pharmaceutical quality are not controlled, and their safety has not been systematically studied.

The systematic review in this issue by Buscemi and colleagues at the University of Alberta (p 385) examines the value of melatonin in sleep disorders.¹ Such a review is much needed, as the support for this work from the US National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine recognises.

A thorough search of the literature yielded 12 mostly small randomised controlled . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Sury, M. R. J., Fairweather, K. (2006). The effect of melatonin on sedation of children undergoing magnetic resonance imaging. Br J Anaesth 97: 220-225 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• (2006). Melatonin: Safe, but Ineffective for Some Sleep Disorders. JWatch Gastroenterology 2006: 10-10 [Full text]  
• (2006). Melatonin: Safe, but Ineffective for Some Sleep Disorders. JWatch General 2006: 4-4 [Full text]  

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