Abstract
An institutionalised 13 year old girl with psychomotor retardation suffered from an irregular sleep-wake pattern. Multiple measurements of urinary sulphatoxymelatonin (aMT6) concentrations were abnormally low, without any significant day-night differences. Administration of exogenous melatonin (3 mg) at 18:00 resulted in increased nocturnal urinary aMT6 concentrations and improvements in her sleep-wake pattern. Melatonin may help disabled children suffering from sleep disorders.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (87.6 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Arendt J., Aldhous M., Wright J. Synchronisation of a disturbed sleep-wake cycle in a blind man by melatonin treatment. Lancet. 1988 Apr 2;1(8588):772–773. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(88)91586-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Armstrong S. M., Cassone V. M., Chesworth M. J., Redman J. R., Short R. V. Synchronization of mammalian circadian rhythms by melatonin. J Neural Transm Suppl. 1986;21:375–394. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Bojkowski C. J., Arendt J., Shih M. C., Markey S. P. Melatonin secretion in humans assessed by measuring its metabolite, 6-sulfatoxymelatonin. Clin Chem. 1987 Aug;33(8):1343–1348. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Brzezinski A. Melatonin in humans. N Engl J Med. 1997 Jan 16;336(3):186–195. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199701163360306. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Guilleminault C., McCann C. C., Quera-Salva M., Cetel M. Light therapy as treatment of dyschronosis in brain impaired children. Eur J Pediatr. 1993 Sep;152(9):754–759. doi: 10.1007/BF01953995. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Haimov I., Laudon M., Zisapel N., Souroujon M., Nof D., Shlitner A., Herer P., Tzischinsky O., Lavie P. Sleep disorders and melatonin rhythms in elderly people. BMJ. 1994 Jul 16;309(6948):167–167. doi: 10.1136/bmj.309.6948.167. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jan J. E., Abroms I. F., Freeman R. D., Brown G. M., Espezel H., Connolly M. B. Rapid cycling in severely multidisabled children: a form of bipolar affective disorder? Pediatr Neurol. 1994 Feb;10(1):34–39. doi: 10.1016/0887-8994(94)90064-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jan J. E., Espezel H., Appleton R. E. The treatment of sleep disorders with melatonin. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1994 Feb;36(2):97–107. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1994.tb11818.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Piazza C. C., Fisher W. W., Kahng S. W. Sleep patterns in children and young adults with mental retardation and severe behavior disorders. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1996 Apr;38(4):335–344. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.1996.tb12099.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Quine L. Sleep problems in children with mental handicap. J Ment Defic Res. 1991 Aug;35(Pt 4):269–290. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2788.1991.tb00402.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sadeh A., Lavie P., Scher A., Tirosh E., Epstein R. Actigraphic home-monitoring sleep-disturbed and control infants and young children: a new method for pediatric assessment of sleep-wake patterns. Pediatrics. 1991 Apr;87(4):494–499. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Shochat T., Luboshitzky R., Lavie P. Nocturnal melatonin onset is phase locked to the primary sleep gate. Am J Physiol. 1997 Jul;273(1 Pt 2):R364–R370. doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.1997.273.1.R364. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stores G. Sleep studies in children with a mental handicap. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1992 Nov;33(8):1303–1317. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1992.tb00951.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
