Adelaide University. Australia: Sleep researchers at the University of Adelaide are warning doctors and
parents not to provide the drug melatonin to children to help control
their sleep problems. Melatonin is a hormone produced in the body
with the onset of darkness. It plays an important role in fine tuning
people's circadian rhythms, such as the timing of sleep onset, as well
as other biological processes. In a paper published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, Professor David Kennaway, Head of the Circadian Physiology Laboratory at the University of Adelaide's Robinson Research Institute, warns that providing melatonin supplements to children may result in serious side effects when the children are older.
"The
use of melatonin as a drug for the treatment of sleep disorders for
children is increasing and this is rather alarming," Professor Kennaway
says.
"Melatonin is registered in Australia as a treatment for
primary insomnia only for people aged 55 years and over, but it's easily
prescribed as an 'off label' treatment for sleep disorders for
children."
Professor Kennaway says there is extensive evidence
from laboratory studies that melatonin causes changes in multiple
physiological systems, including cardiovascular, immune and metabolic
systems, as well as reproduction in animals.
"Melatonin is also a
registered veterinary drug which is used for changing the seasonal
patterns of sheep and goats, so they are more productive for industry.
If doctors told parents that information before prescribing the drug to
their children, I'm sure most would think twice about giving it to their
child," Professor Kennaway says.
"The word 'safe' is used very
freely and loosely with this drug, but there have been no rigorous,
long-term safety studies of the use of melatonin to treat sleep
disorders in children and adolescents.
"There is also the
potential for melatonin to interact with other drugs commonly prescribed
for children, but it's difficult to know without clinical trials
assessing its safety."
Professor Kennaway, who has been
researching melatonin for the past 40 years, says these concerns have
largely been ignored throughout the world.
"Considering the small
advances melatonin provides to the timing of sleep, and considering
what we know about how melatonin works in the body, it is not worth the
risk to child and adolescent safety," he says.