The Effects of the Exogenous Melatonin on Shift Work Sleep Disorder in Health Personnel: A Systematic Review

Bárbara Carriedo-Diez, Javier Lucas Tosoratto-Venturi, Carmen Cantón-Manzano, Carmina Wanden-Berghe and Javier Sanz-Valero ()
Additional contact information
Bárbara Carriedo-Diez: Manacor Hospital, Occupational Health Service, 07500 Manacor, Spain
Javier Lucas Tosoratto-Venturi: Son Llàtzer Hospital, Occupational Health Service, 07198 Palma, Spain
Carmen Cantón-Manzano: Getafe Hospital, Occupational Risk Prevention Service, 28905 Getafe, Spain
Carmina Wanden-Berghe: Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research in the Valencian Region (FISABIO), Health and Biomedical Research Institute of Alicante (ISABIAL), 03010 Alicante, Spain
Javier Sanz-Valero: Department of Public Health and History of Science, Miguel Hernández University, 03550 Alicante, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-19

Abstract: (1) Background: To know the medical documentation related to exogenous melatonin in sleep disorders caused by shift work in health personnel; (2) Methods: Systematic and critical review. Data were obtained by looking up the bibliographic data base: MEDLINE (via Pubmed), Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, Latin American and Caribbean literature in Health Sciences (LILACS) and Medicine in Spanish (MEDES). The used terms, as descriptors and text in the title and abstract record fields, were “Health Personnel”, “Melatonin” and “Sleep Disorders”, Circadian Rhythm, by using the following filters: “Humans”, “Adult: 19+ years” and “Clinical Trial”. The search update was in December 2021. The documentary quality of the articles was assessed using the CONSORT questionnaire. (3) Results: Having applied the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 10 clinical essays were selected out of 98 retrieved references. CONSORT scores ranged from a minimum of 6.0 to a maximum of 13. 7 with a median of 10.2. According to the SIGN criteria, this review presented “1-“evidence with a grade of recommendation B. The intervention dose via administration of exogenous melatonin ranged between 1 and 10 mg. It was not mentioned whether the route of administration was by fast or slow absorption. The outcomes showed decreased daytime sleepiness, lessened sleep onset latency, diminished night-time awakenings, increased total sleep period and improved daytime attention in the melatonin-treated group; (4) Conclusions: Exogenously administered melatonin is effective in shift worker health personnel that are suffering from sleep disorders, and given its low adverse effects and tolerability, it might be recommended. A great disparity was evidenced in terms of dose, follow-up periods and type of melatonin, small participant population, same age ranges and young age. Therefore, new trials would be needed to amend these observations in order to have full evidence that is able to ensure the efficacy of exogenous melatonin in the studied population.

Keywords: health personnel; melatonin; sleep disorders; circadian rhythm; occupational health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/10199/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/10199/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:10199-:d:890385

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().