Use of melatonin to treat sleep disorders in tuberous sclerosis

Use of melatonin to treat sleep disorders in tuberous sclerosis

O'Callaghan F J K; Clarke A;Hancock E; Hunt A B A; Osborne J P

Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology

1999

sleep disturbance/disorders; tuberous sclerosis; pharmacologic intervention; melatonin

The results of a therapeutic trial of the use of melatonin in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex who also have severe sleep problems are reported. We used a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled crossover design. Seven patients with confirmed diagnoses of tuberous sclerosis and significant sleep disorder were recruited. We employed three outcome measures: total sleep time, time to sleep onset, and number of awakenings. Patients treated with melatonin had a small but clinically significant improvement in total sleep time (mean improvement 0.55 hours, P < 0.05). They also tended to have an improvement in sleep-onset time but this did not reach statistical significance. Melatonin, in this trial, had no discernible effect on sleep fragmentation. We conclude that melatonin does have a beneficial effect in prolonging the total sleep time of patients with tuberous sclerosis and sleep disorder and that further trials are necessary to investigate the issues of optimal dosage, tolerance, and possible interactions with other medications.

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).