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. 2020 May 27;75:542. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.05.028

Delirium, sleep, COVID-19 and melatonin

Viroj Wiwanitkit 1
PMCID: PMC7255123  PMID: 32507360

Dear Editor, the recent article “Delirium and sleep disturbances in COVID-19: a possible role for melatonin in hospitalized patients?” is quite noteworthy [1]. Zambrelli et al., mentioned that “Melatonin's safety in doses up to 10 mg has been shown to be very high in ICU patients and should be used in the prevention and treatment of sleep disturbances and delirium in COVID–19.” [1]. The effect of melatonin on novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection is a significant issue. In brief, melatonin is effective for reducing anxiety and useful for controlling insomnia. Some recent reports mention the benefit of melatonin in management of COVID-19 [2,3]. Melatonin can help decrease lung fibrosis, which is a significant complication of COVID-19 [2,3]. Therefore, it is recommended that melatonin should be used in any COVID-19 cases regardless of delirium or sleep disturbance.

Footnotes

None declared.

The ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest associated with this article can be viewed by clicking on the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2020.05.028.

Conflict of interest

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References

  • 1.Zambrelli E., Canevini M., Gambini O. Delirium and sleep disturbances in COVID-19: a possible role for melatonin in hospitalized patients? Sleep Med. 2020 Apr 17;70:111. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2020.04.006. [Epub ahead of print] [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 2.Zhang R., Wang X., Ni L. COVID-19: melatonin as a potential adjuvant treatment. Life Sci. 2020 Jun 1;250:117583. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2020.117583. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 3.Shneider A., Kudriavtsev A., Vakhrusheva A. Can melatonin reduce the severity of COVID-19 pandemic? Int Rev Immunol. 2020 Apr 29:1–10. doi: 10.1080/08830185.2020.1756284. [Epub ahead of print] [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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Supplementary Materials

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