Melatonin

Question

Hello, my 8-year-old son has cystic fibrosis and has trouble in sleeping. It takes him very long to fall asleep and he joins us in the night. He is followed up by a child psychiatrist who prescribed 2mg of melatonin for 1 month. What do you think?
The CF Center pediatrician had prescribed the périactine to open his appetite but I read on your site that you advise against this drug when suffering from cystic fibrosis.
Thank you for your reply.
Best wishes

Answer

Hello,

As for an answer, you will find thereafter the abstract of a Canadian Paediatric Society communication, which states as follows:

"There are studies on the benefits of melatonin in the treatment of sleep disorders among healthy populations of children and adolescents with deficit attention disorder with hyperactivity, autistic children and adolescents and more other populations with special problems. These studies demonstrate the benefits, plus they have minimal side effects. However, all the studies involved small groups of subjects and only dealt with the short-term use of melatonin. There are no solid data on the efficacy and safety of prolonged use of melatonin. Further studies are needed to confirm its usefulness and safety in the treatment of sleep disorders in children and adolescents. "
In summary, this quite costly product especially if taken in the long term has not spectacular effect but has the advantage to be at priori well tolerated.

It should also be noted the importance of general measures of healthy living to be applied in priority before prescribing drug treatment:

- Sleep in a well ventilated room and not too hot (below 20 ° C)
- Avoid hot baths, physical activities, stimulants, tobacco and alcohol before bed
- Respect the best regular sleep schedules with possible sleep ritual (short reading but not on a smartphone or computer).
Note, if you are interested, there are tools on the market (bracelet or watch) connected to a smartphone that allow precise monitoring of light and deep sleep duration.
Hoping to have answered your question
Best wishes
Gilles RAULT, MD, Roscoff CF Center

24.04.2016