Melatonin for Treatment-Seeking Alcohol Use Disorder patients with sleeping problems: A randomized clinical pilot trial

Abstract

A high percentage of subjects diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) suffer from sleeping difficulties. Lack of sleep could lead AUD patients to relapse or, sometimes, to suicide. Most of the currently prescribed medications to treat this complex problem retain a high risk of side effects and/or dependence. Therefore, the aim of the current clinical trial is to investigate the possibility of the use of a safer treatment, such as the natural health product melatonin, to treat alcohol-related sleeping problems. Sixty treatment-seeking AUD subjects were assigned to melatonin (5 mg) or placebo for 4 weeks of treatment. Change in sleeping quality which is the primary outcome of the study was assessed using the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scale. Linear mixed models were used to statistically analyze the difference in scores before and after 4 weeks of treatment. There was a reduction in the global PSQI score in both groups with no significant drug effect between groups. In conclusion, the use of melatonin (5 mg)/day didn’t differ from placebo in decreasing sleeping problems in a sample of AUD subjects after 4 weeks of treatment. However, higher doses are worth exploring in future research.

Structural and physico-chemical evaluation of melatonin and its solution-state excited properties, with emphasis on its binding with novel coronavirus proteins

“…As melatonin can diffuse quickly through the blood-brain barrier, it is effectively used in the treatment of brain injuries [ 7 , 10 , 16 ]. Rapid eye-movement sleep-behavior disorder patients are managed by a combination treatment of melatonin and clonazepam [ [17] , [18] , [19] ]. The sensing of bacteria through Toll-like receptor-4, and regulation of bacteria through altered goblet cells and antimicrobial peptides, are all involved in the anticolitic effects of melatonin in inflammatory bowel disease [ 20 ].…”

Role of Melatonin in the Management of Substance Addiction: A Systematic Review

“…The studies were classified as high risk of bias, low risk of bias, and unclear risk of bias. The risk of bias summary and graph was generated using the online tool Risk-of-bias VISualization (robvis; Luke McGuinness, Bristol Medical School, Bristol, Uk) [26] and the summary of studies is shown in Figures 1, 2 [18,21,22,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35].…”

“…The included studies were conducted in eight different countries such as Denmark [27,28,34,35], Israel [18,31], Iran [32], USA [30], Canada [29], Argentina [21], Spain [33], and Finland [22]. Studies have been conducted on various substances of addiction including benzodiazepine [18,21,22,27,28,31,[33][34][35], alcohol [29], nicotine [36] and opioid [32]. The sample size of the included studies ranges from 12 to 92 subjects (Table 1).…”

“…In the literature, we found very few studies that evaluated the use of melatonin/melatonin agonists in alcohol use disorders. In a study included in this review, Gendy et al, the role of melatonin was assessed to treat sleep problems in patients with AUD [29]. It has been reported that there was a reduction in the global Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score in both melatonin and placebo groups but there was no significant difference between the groups.…”