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Use of melatonin in the treatment of paediatric sleep disorders
1University of British Columbia, Developmental Paediatrics, and Visually Impaired Program, Sunny Hill Health Centre, Vancouver, Canada.
Insights
Oral melatonin effectively treats chronic sleep disorders in children with disabilities, including visual impairments. This safe and inexpensive treatment benefited over 80% of patients, offering significant societal advantages.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Neurology
- Sleep Medicine
Background:
- Children with disabilities, including visual impairments, often experience chronic sleep-wake cycle disturbances.
- These disabilities can impair the ability to synchronize sleep with environmental cues.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the efficacy and safety of oral melatonin for treating chronic sleep disorders in children with disabilities.
Main Methods:
- Review of data from the first 100 pediatric patients treated with oral melatonin for sleep disorders since 1991.
- Patients included those with visual impairments, neurological, neuropsychiatric, and developmental disabilities.
Main Results:
- Oral melatonin provided significant benefit to over 80% of the studied patients.
- A safe, inexpensive, and effective treatment option with no observed side effects or tolerance.
- Dosage ranged from 2.5 mg to 10 mg of fast-release melatonin at bedtime.
Conclusions:
- Melatonin is a promising treatment for sleep-wake cycle disorders in children with disabilities.
- Clinical experience is crucial for successful treatment, considering individual health factors.
- Further research is essential to explore the full benefits of melatonin therapy for this population.
Abstract:
A group of Vancouver health professionals, including the authors, have studied the use of oral melatonin in the treatment of chronic sleep disorders in children with disabilities since the Fall of 1991. This review article is based on the first 100 patients, half of whom were visually impaired or blind. Children with neurological, neuropsychiatric, and developmental disabilities are predisposed to chronic sleep-wake cycle disturbances. Disorders such as blindness, deaf-blindness, mental retardation, autism, and central nervous system diseases, among others, diminish the ability of these individuals to perceive and interpret the multitude of cues for synchronizing their sleep with the environment. Melatonin, which benefitted slightly over 80% of our patients, appears to be a safe, inexpensive, and a very effective treatment of sleep-wake cycle disorders. The oral dose of fast release melatonin taken at bed-time ranged from 2.5 mg to 10 mg. Side effects or the development of tolerance have not been observed. Since the causes of sleep difficulties are extremely variable, not all children are candidates for treatment. For successful melatonin treatment, clinical experience is required, and the influences of other health problems and medications need to be considered. Further clinical and laboratory research in this field is imperative because melatonin treatment offers enormous health, emotional, social, and economic benefits to society, especially since multidisabled children with chronic sleep difficulties do not respond well to current therapeutic regimes.