Melatonin for Sleep in Children with Autism: a Controlled Trial Examining Dose, Tolerability, and Outcomes

Overview

Journal J Autism Dev Disord

Publisher Springer

Date 2011 Dec 14

PMID 22160300

Citations 87

Authors

Beth Malow

Karen W Adkins

Susan G McGrew

Lily Wang

Suzanne E Goldman

Diane Fawkes

Courtney Burnette

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Supplemental melatonin has shown promise in treating sleep onset insomnia in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Twenty-four children, free of psychotropic medications, completed an open-label dose-escalation study to assess dose-response, tolerability, safety, feasibility of collecting actigraphy data, and ability of outcome measures to detect change during a 14-week intervention. Supplemental melatonin improved sleep latency, as measured by actigraphy, in most children at 1 or 3 mg dosages. It was effective in week 1 of treatment, maintained effects over several months, was well tolerated and safe, and showed improvement in sleep, behavior, and parenting stress. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on supplemental melatonin for insomnia in ASD and inform planning for a large randomized trial in this population.

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