PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Josephine Arendt
AU  - Eus JW Van Someren
AU  - Richard Appleton
AU  - Debra J Skene
AU  - Torbjorn Akerstedt
TI  - Clinical update: melatonin and sleep disorders
AID  - 10.7861/clinmedicine.8-4-381
DP  - 2008 Aug 01
TA  - Clinical Medicine
PG  - 381--383
VI  - 8
IP  - 4
4099  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/8/4/381.short
4100  - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/8/4/381.full
SO  - Clin Med2008 Aug 01; 8
AB  - The hormone melatonin is increasingly used for the treatment of certain sleep disorders, particularly those related to disturbed biological rhythms. This article summarises current knowledge of its mechanism of action and identifies situations where there is good evidence for its efficacy. The authors provide advice, based on their own experience and consistent published data, concerning the dose range of melatonin to be used and the critically important question of the timing of treatment. Anecdotal evidence for the use of melatonin needs to be replaced by data from well-controlled, preferably multi-centre, randomised clinical trials.